Uppsala, Sweden, 11th May, 2006. Biacore International AB (Biacore) announced today that it has formally launched its own operation in China, and is taking over full business responsibility for its products in the People´s Republic of China. The new organization is designed to take Biacore´s business to the next stage of its development in the rapidly growing market for life science instrumentation in China.
The new Chinese operation will be headed by Peter Lee, the former Regional Sales Manager for GE Healthcare in Southern China. He will lead a team of six people based in Shanghai that will be responsible for the sales, marketing, applications support and service of Biacore´s systems in China. In the outlying areas of the country Biacore will be supported by a network of local dealers and distributors. The organization will target customers in the life science research, pharmaceutical and biotechnology and food sectors.
The market for life science instrumentation in China was estimated to be worth $1.6 billion in 2005*, having more than doubled in value since 1998. Over the next several years the Chinese market for life science instrumentation is expected to grow significantly as the government continues to invest in new centers of excellence in the areas of proteomics and genomics. In addition the industrial customer base for Biacore´s systems is forecast to increase at a rapid pace, given the growing number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies who are setting up significant research organizations in China. As well as developing conventional western pharmaceutical products, the pharmaceutical industry in China is looking more closely at traditional Chinese medicines as a potential source of new drugs, a trend which is expected to be an important positive in driving the demand for Biacore´s systems.
Erik Walldén, Biacore´s President and CEO commented: "I am pleased to announce this important strategic development for Biacore, and at the same time I would like to thank GE Healthcare, our previous distributor, for a good initial job of establishing Biacore´s Chinese business. We believe that China has the potential to become a major market for our products and having our own organization will be crucial in achieving our medium term sales targets. Given the broad range of customers and applications that our systems address, it is crucial that we are in a position to market their key benefits directly to the customers that we target. Given his previous success with Biacore´s products in China I am sure that Peter Lee and his team will be able to quickly build a much larger business for us in this key strategic market."