Unilife Medical Solutions Chairman's Letter to Shareholders
18 Agosto 2009 - 5:38PM
Marketwired
Jim Bosnjak, Chairman of Unilife Medical Solutions (PINKSHEETS:
UNIFF) (ASX: UNI), issued the following letter to shareholders:
Dear Shareholders,
I am pleased to advise that Unilife Medical Solutions is well on
its way to becoming a global leader in the design, development and
supply of innovative safety medical devices for the pharmaceutical
and healthcare markets.
In the last few years, the Board has implemented a strategic
plan that sought to capitalize upon significant pharmaceutical
interest in our technology, strengthen our internal operational
capabilities and shift our corporate focus towards the US. This
plan is now delivering significant results. We are regularly
achieving our scheduled business milestones, establishing strategic
relationships with a number of global pharmaceutical leaders and
attracting high-caliber industry leaders to our world-class
team.
Furthermore, we expect to have generated revenues and other
income of approximately AUD $40 million and profit after tax in
excess of AUD $11 million for the 2008 / 2009 financial year. These
are the un-audited results and are before any necessary audit/late
adjustments and/or post balance sheet date events.
On July 1, 2009, Unilife signed an Industrialization Agreement
with our major pharmaceutical partner for the Unilife Ready-to-Fill
Syringe. The agreement commits our major pharmaceutical partner to
pay Unilife approximately AUD $47 million (EUR 27 million) in
exclusivity fees and industrialization program payments in exchange
for the right to negotiate for the purchase of the product. We are
fortunate to have the support of this large and respected partner
that is currently the world's largest purchaser of prefilled
syringes.
There are more than 20 other pharmaceutical companies that
supply injectable drugs in a prefilled format. The
Industrialisation Agreement we have signed with our major
pharmaceutical partner gives us the commercial freedom to
capitalize on the full potential of the Unilife Ready-to-Fill
Syringe for it to become the prefilled syringe of choice for
pharmaceutical companies. Unilife expects to reach a decision with
its major pharmaceutical partner later this year with regard to the
therapeutic areas of exclusivity for the Unilife Ready-to-Fill
Syringe. At that time, we expect to be in a position to enter into
additional agreements with other interested pharmaceutical
companies. Initial discussions with several other pharmaceutical
companies have already commenced.
The industrialization program for the Unilife Ready-to-Fill
Syringe is running well ahead of schedule, with its expected
completion by the end of 2010. As a result, Unilife expects to be
in a position to commence the supply and sale of the product to
pharmaceutical customers within 18 months.
While Unilife has a high-level of expertise in the design,
development and operation of automated assembly systems, we have
made the considered decision given the extensive scale of our
production plans to outsource this component of the project to an
established industry specialist. In the last 12 months, Unilife has
undertaken an exhaustive review of global specialists with the
industry expertise and operational resources necessary to help us
meet our production growth targets between now and 2016. We are
pleased with the quality of the proposals we have received and
expect to make an announcement of the selected supplier for our
automated assembly systems later this year.
As a result of these discussions with these potential automated
assembly system suppliers, Unilife has been able to increase the
projected annual capacities for the Ready-to-Fill Syringe so that
we can meet anticipated market demand faster and more
cost-effectively than originally envisioned. Given the strong level
of interest in the Unilife Ready-to-Fill Syringe from a number of
pharmaceutical companies, the competitive position of our
technology and the rapid transition of international healthcare
markets towards the mandatory use of safety syringes, we believe we
are well positioned to reach an industrial capacity in excess of
450 million units beyond 2014 and 850 million units beyond
2016.
As released earlier, Unilife completed a significant Company
milestone this month with production of the Unitract 1mL Insulin
Syringes commencing at our Lewisberry facility. This eagerly
anticipated announcement marks the first time that high-volume
production of our Unitract 1mL Syringes has occurred in clean-room
conditions. I encourage shareholders to visit our website at
www.unilife.com to see a video of the Unitract 1mL Syringe
production systems in operation.
The automated assembly line that is now manufacturing our
Unitract 1mL Syringes has been fully designed, developed, built and
qualified by our in-house team. There are few companies in the
world, particularly of our size, which have the core competency
in-house to develop innovative medical devices and the automated
assembly systems used to manufacture them. This core set of
operational strengths is a testament to our success in building a
world-class business via the acquisition of IBS and the recruitment
of global medical device industry leaders to our team. Initial
production will be used to complete accelerated device ageing
studies. Unilife will continue to manufacture the Unitract 1mL
Syringes and hold them in quarantine until commercial release
during the fourth quarter upon completion of the ageing
studies.
Unilife has now completed the first stage of consolidating its
international business activities into Central Pennsylvania. Since
September last year, Unilife has added more than 35 management and
senior professional staff to its Lewisberry facility via either
recruitment or relocation activities. I have now had the privilege
to meet members of this world-class management team, which has an
average 23 years experience including working for multinational
medical device and pharmaceutical leaders such as Baxter,
Medtronic, Teva, Safety Syringes, Resmed, MEDRAD, Biotronik, Tyco,
Dentsply, Boston Scientific and Kimberley Clark. The experience and
industry backgrounds of this high-caliber team reflect the type of
business we are on the way to becoming, and the status of the
customers with whom we intend to build long-term relationships.
It is our intention to centralize manufacturing activities for
the next phase of our expansion within Pennsylvania. In this way,
we hope to reduce expected future business operating costs by
improving our economies of scale and drive management
accountability in the delivery of key project milestones. We are
reviewing a number of options to establish a major facility which
can serve as our long-term global headquarters and facilitate the
high-volume production of key products such as the Unilife
Ready-to-Fill Syringe. It is our intention to transition key
elements of our business into this new facility during mid to late
2010. This transition is not expected to have any negative impact
on our ability to meet demand for the Unitract 1mL Syringe and the
Unilife Ready-to-Fill Syringe.
Finally, we remain well on-track to complete a scheduled listing
onto a US stock exchange by the end of this year. The listing of
Unilife on a US exchange has been a long-held goal that should
facilitate our emergence as a US-based global industry leader for
innovative safety medical devices.
On behalf of my fellow Directors, I look forward to keeping you
fully updated with the continued implementation of our strategic
business plan over the coming year. Thank you again for your
continued confidence and support, and I hope to see you at our
Annual General Meeting in Sydney this November.
Yours sincerely
Jim Bosnjak OAM
Non-Executive Chairman
Unilife Medical Solutions Limited
Contact: Stuart Fine 908-469-1788 Email Contact
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