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TWST: Can we set the foundation with a quick introduction and historical sketch of GeneMedix (London:GMX.L)?

Mr. Edwards: The Company was founded back in 1997 on the back of some exciting technology at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry. We acquired a range of high yielding cell lines to enable us to produce generic versions of the first generation of therapeutic proteins -- EPO, alpha interferon, insulin, etc. We took that work back in-house and in 1999 raised our first serious money and put our management team together. By the end of 2000, we had actually listed on the London and Singapore Stock Exchange, had four products under development and had acquired a manufacturing plant in China to allow us to produce GM-CSF. 2001 was a pretty important year for us. We commenced building our second manufacturing plant in Ireland and by the end of the year we had actually got our first product GM-CSF on to the market. As we moved into 2002, we had commercial deals in place for sales and distribution of our products in China, in India and in South East Asia. On top of our first two manufacturing plants, we also signed secondary manufacturing agreements for finished products in both Malaysia and in India. Today, therefore we have our product in the market. We have the second plant now mechanically complete in Ireland to produce EPO. We are in late stage development on EPO, interferon, with GM-CSF obviously in the markets and also we have the insulin under development. Throughout the next 6-12 months, we anticipate really getting ourselves in position to get our products marketed in Europe by signing a distribution agreement for the European Union. We anticipate extending our product range in terms of additional therapeutic proteins, but also we anticipate looking to find partners to produce what we call second generation product, a product similar to the peg-interferon, for getting the long acting and slow release versions of the proteins into the market. So that’s very much where we are headed.

TWST: Is this a sparsely populated space at present?

Mr. Edwards: It is. There are other people looking into the European market, but because the entry barriers are so high it is a lot smaller number than let’s say the classic small molecule generics.

TWST: How do you see the company’s strategic direction unfolding over the next two or three years and what accomplishments will make that time frame a success?

Mr. Edwards: If I look in three years time, we would anticipate having three products into a number of Asian markets and possibly also South America. We would be looking therefore to have GM-CSF, EPO and Interferon launched in markets such as India, Malaysia, China and potentially some in South America. I would anticipate that by that time we would have further proteins under development to broaden our product portfolio. I would anticipate that we would certainly be in development for at least one second generation product. By that stage, I would anticipate, in addition to the plant in China and India, that we would have an additional microbial plant potentially built in Europe and that we would be well advanced building an Insulin plant somewhere in Asia. By three years time, I would like to think we would be close to getting our first product regulated into Europe.