ABOUT SYNPAC-KINGDOM PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.

Kingdom Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd was established in 1965 with its
head office located in Taipei city, Taiwan and its plant located in the
south suburb of Taipei, Tuchen city. The manufacturing plant in
Tuchen has a size of 5,200 pings (roughly 190,000 sq. ft.) and has
already been a GMP plant since 1987. Currently, the plant is
embarking on a program to upgrade its facilities and all validation
procedures in order to comply with cGMP. The company has already passed the inspection of phase I cGMP (air、water system validation)
and is moving ahead to meet government's phase II cGMP
requirement.

The main business lines of Synpac-Kingdom used to include bulk actives, Chinese herbal preparations and western generic pharmaceutical products. Since its acquisition by China Synthetic Rubber Company (CSRC), a subsidiary company of Koos group (one of the largest financial and manufacturing conglomerates in Taiwan), Synpac-Kingdom has divested its Chinese herbal preparations and bulk actives lines and focused only on marketing and manufacturing of ethical pharmaceutical products.

Currently, Synpac-Kingdom's registered capital is about 9 million USD and it has about 170 employees. About one third of the company employees are field staff. Its annual sales turnover in the year 2000 is about 10.5 million USD and is well represented in all major channels i.e. hospitals, GPs and drugstores.

Koos group started to venture into biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields 10 years ago. Through CSRC, Koos group bought a penicillin G plant in U.K. from Glaxo group and renamed it as Synpac Pharmaceutical Ltd. Through Synpac Pharmaceutical Ltd, CSRC has invested aggressively on biotechnology product development. One of the success story is the development of an orphan drug for treating Pompe Disease through sponsoring and collaboration with Duke University, North Carolina, USA. The development right of the product was later on licensed out to Genzyme, a U.S. biotechnology company.

Due to the change in market situation and company strategy, Koos group has sold its bulk active operation in U.K., i.e. Synpac Pharmaceutical Ltd and look for operating base in Taiwan to strengthen its East Asia pharmaceutical and biotechnology development. In 1997, Koos group has acquired part of Kingdom Pharmaceutical company's stake through CSRC. Gradually, the Koos group's stake has been increased to 100% by the end of year 2001.

After being acquired by Koos group and renamed as Synpac-Kingdom Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. , Synpac-Kingdom intends to transform itself into a market driven pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. Its product portfolio will be also switched from generic drugs to new drugs and new dosage forms with better value.

Hence, restructuring of organization is ongoing and recruiting
competent staffs in research and marketing has been the first priority
of the company. In order to facilitate the development in new drugs
and biotech products, Synpac-Kingdom also pursue aggressively for alliance with local or foreign biotech or pharmaceutical companies.
In July 2002, Synpac-Kingdom signed a contract with the renown
Biomedical Engineering Center of the Industrial Technology Research Institute to acquire the development right of a new anticancer drug lead (Polythiophene derivatives).
Additionally, Synpac-Kingdom recently also acquired the marketing right of a new product for anal fissure treatment from a U.S. biotech company. This alliance will be possibly expanded to China and other regional markets.

Through the leadership of the new management team, Synpac-Kingdom Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. endeavors to make itself one of the leading globolocal pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with international perspective and regional focus.

Synpac-Kingdom Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Phone: 886-2-2736-2236
Fax: 886-2-2735-7004
E-mail: service@sking.com.tw
Address: 4 F, 267 Tun-Hwa S. Road, Sec.2, Taipei, 106 Taiwan