Hutchison MediPharma Ltd. has entered into an agreement providing for a worldwide strategic alliance with Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. to discover and develop novel small-molecule therapeutics against a target in the area of inflammation/immunology. Under the Agreement, Hutchison MediPharma will continue its discovery activities against the target. In addition, unless OMJPI opts to do so, Hutchison MediPharma may conduct clinical development of drug compounds from the discovery programme through the demonstration of clinical proof-of-concept. If at that time or earlier OMJPI opts to take over development, OMJPI will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize drug compounds from Hutchison MediPharma's programme. Hutchison MediPharma will receive from OMJPI an up-front payment upon execution of the Agreement and milestone payments upon its achievement of specific development and approval events. In addition, Hutchison MediPharma will be entitled to royalties on OMJPI's worldwide sales of any products from the programme and to an option to co-promote the products in China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

Hutchison MediPharma Ltd. has entered into a new drug discovery and development agreement with Eli Lilly & Co. in respect of an additional target in oncology. This adds to the existing pharmaceutical agents focused on targets in oncology and inflammation being developed by the Hutchison MediPharma group for Lilly. Under the Agreement, Hutchison MediPharma will assume primary responsibility for the discovery phase activities necessary for the identification and selection of clinical candidates, and in return Hutchison MediPharma will receive from Lilly an up-front payment, as well as potential fees including: option fees, discovery and development milestone payments and royalties on worldwide sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.

Chi-Med announces that its wholly-owned drug R&D subsidiary, Hutchison Medipharma Limited has enrolled the first patient into its global Phase IIb trial programme assessing HMPL-004 in patients with mild-to-moderate Ulcerative Colitis (UC), a form of inflammatory bowel disease. This patient was screened and randomized per the study protocol at one of its clinical sites in the United States. The global clinical trial programme has been designed to further test the drug candidate's efficacy, assess its safety profile in a broader patient population and to evaluate different dose regimens in preparation for the Phase III trials with HMPL-004. The global Phase IIb UC trial will be conducted in approximately 50 clinical study centres worldwide including sites in North America and Europe. The global Phase IIb UC trial is a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study which will recruit 210 patients with active mild-to-moderate UC. The patients will be randomized into one of the two HMPL-004 treatment arms, 1,200mg/daily or 1,800mg/daily, or the placebo arm.