Ilex Medical Ltd. (TASE:ILX) subsidiary Ilex Biotech Ltd., has obtained exclusive rights from Chiron Corporation (Nasdaq: CHIR) to represent the company in Russia and Turkey, and distribute its diagnostic products to blood banks in those countries. Chiron also granted Ilex the authority to register its products with the Russian and Turkish regulators.
Ilex has similar franchise from Chiron for South Africa, which began generating revenue for Ilex in the fourth quarter of 2005, and is due to generate NIS 70 million revenue a year.
The franchises mainly cover blood testing products for AIDS and hepatitis. Ilex is now negotiating with Chiron the commercial terms of its franchises for Russia and Turkey. Ilex believes that if contracts for the Russian and Turkish franchises are signed, they will not generate substantial revenue this year, but later.
The process was similar for Ilex’s South African franchise. Ilex obtained the franchise to distribute Chrion’s product in April 2004, and signed an agreement with South African blood banks in March 2005, whereas substantial sales only began to materialize during the fourth quarter of 2005.
Thanks to the start of sales of Chiron products in the fourth quarter, Ilex saw substantial improvement in its results, which were published yesterday. Ilex posted a net profit of NIS 12.3 million on NIS 55.8 million revenue for the fourth quarter. The company posted net profit of NIS 14.5 million on NIS 166.5 million revenue in 2005. The company’s revenue came from the sale of Chiron products in South Africa and from streamlining of its GNC vitamins chain, which closed its stores and switch to a model for distributing its products through pharmacies.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 16, 2006
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