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Solagran Limited
Solagran Limited
ACN 002 592 396
Level 11
492 St Kilda Road
Melbourne 3004
Victoria
Australia
Tel 61 3 9820 2699
Fax 61 3 9820 3155
22 April 2008
Company Announcement
Update on Ropren® Production and Marketing
The Directors of Solagran Limited are pleased to provide an update in relation to the
production and marketing of Ropren® in Russia.
Solagran’s Executive Director Operations, Mr Charles Pellegrino, has recently returned
from Russia where he oversaw the completion of the construction of the SibEX
production facility in Tomsk, participated in the opening of the facility as announced on
27 March 2008, and signed a special co-operation agreement with the Tomsk Regional
Government.
In his report to the Board this week, Mr Pellegrino commented that the metamorphosis
that had occurred at the SibEX plant over the past six months had made an indelible
impression on him. He was also able to demonstrate that the facility had been
completed well ahead of schedule, resulting in significant savings. The Board considers
this an excellent achievement in view of the unique nature of the plant and the level of
sophistication of its engineering.
He also reported that testing of the facility, which was under way when he left Russia,
has now been successfully completed more than three weeks ahead of schedule. This
process, which was very thorough and well planned, has proven extremely valuable. It
revealed an ability to tune the plant in a way that increases its production capacity from a
planned 20kg of Bioeffective® R per month, to around 40kg per month, without any
material additional capital expenditure.
This increased production capacity translates into a total of 10,000 courses of Ropren®
per month, or 120,000 courses per year.
The Board is also pleased to report that Dr Victoria Gorbacheva has now joined Solagran
as General Manager, Solagran Russia. Dr Gorbacheva has brought with her a five
person team with which to manage the marketing of Ropren® in St Petersburg and
Moscow.
At this stage, there are nine hospitals across these two cities that are waiting to receive
their initial supply of Ropren®. Firm orders will be confirmed when pricing has been
finalised in mid May and will be announced to the market at that time. Marketing to
senior clinicians outside these nine institutions will also commence at that time.
May will also see Solagran’s Executive Chairman, Dr Vagif Soultanov, participate in two
important conferences to be held in St Petersburg.
The first is Gastro 2008, an annual conference attended by more than 1,000 leading
gastroenterologists from across Europe.
Solagran Limited
Continued … Page 2 of 2
The second is a major international symposium being held to celebrate the 120th
anniversary of the founding of the Pasteur Institute in Paris by Louis Pasteur and Ilya
Mechnikov, and the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Pasteur Institute in St
Petersburg. This conference will be attended by a large audience of microbiologists and
infectious diseases experts from throughout the world, and particularly from the
international network of 30 Pasteur Institutes.
Dr Soultanov and Solagran’s research partners will present a total of ten papers related
to Bioeffective® A and Ropren® – eight at the Pasteur Institute conference and two at
Gastro 2008.
Peter Stedwell
Company Secretary
On behalf of the Board of Directors
Solagran Limit