Opal Healthcare and IQA announce collaborative agreement

OXFORD, UK & PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, October 7th, 2005 - Opal Healthcare (Opal) and IQA a.s. today announced a collaborative development, distribution and marketing agreement concerning the injectable antibacterial combination product piperacillin/tazobactam.

Oxford-based Opal specialises in the development and supply of customised, high value injectable drugs for hospital and specialist applications. The Company aims to meet the needs of the physician, pharmacist or patient by offering flexible dosage forms and packaging options.

"We're a young company," commented Managing Director Yasmin Crawford. "Our first product was launched only one year ago. However, using our global network to source generics for development and marketing worldwide, we've already built a product portfolio of seven products, including this new combination."

The increasing number of hospital acquired, bacterial infections continues to attract media attention and cause concern amongst health authorities, patients and their families. Equally worrying is the growing incidence of antibiotic resistance. Opal's combination product will provide a more effective option to treat bacterial infections that are resistant to piperacillin on its own.

IQA will conduct the development programme whilst Opal is responsible for supporting the commercialisation of the product with IQA through regulatory submissions for marketing approval and own sales and distribution in specified countries such as the UK and the Middle East. The rights to the dossier will also be offered out to interested companies throughout the world.

"We are young too, but this is our fourth contract for generic development in the last two years" said CEO, Xenia Svobodová. "We believe this is the first project in a long and fruitful cooperation with Opal Healthcare. We like their focus on the injectable, hospital product niche market and their dynamic management. We look forward to combining our in-depth knowledge and creativity to building a sustained, value-added partnership".