Viva Biotech and SYNthesis Enters a Strategic Acquisition Agreement, Accelerating the Development of Global Innovative Drug R & D Service Capabilities

Viva Biotech (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. entered into the Share Purchase Agreement pursuant to which Viva Biotech agreed to acquire and the Vendors agreed to collectively sell 100% of the equity interest in SYNthesis med chem (Hong Kong, S.A.R., China) Limited, at the consideration of approximately US$ 80 million (equivalent to approximately HK$ 620 million). The acquisition will achieve the synergies between Viva Biotech and SYNthesis, regarding to the CRO business in the global market, which is of great strategic significance for The Company to conduct vertical integration and establish a comprehensive one-stop drug services platform.

SYNthesis is a preclinical small molecule drug discovery service contract organisation which mainly provides high-end pharmaceutical chemistry and synthetic chemistry services to its clients. SYNthesis is headquartered in Hong Kong, S.A.R., China and has service platforms in Suzhou, Shanghai and Australia. It generates revenue mainly from customers in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, and has established branches in these regions for project management and business expansion. The company's senior science management team comprises international and professional talents with extensive experience in drug development. As of December 31st, 2019, the company has more than 200 employees, and serves over 250 pharmaceutical companies and biopharmaceutical companies worldwide.

Viva Biotech operates a world-leading structure-based, integrated drug discovery platform, providing structure-based drug discovery services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers worldwide for their preclinical stage innovative drug development, covering the full spectrum of our customers 'needs for early stage drug discovery. As of June 30th, 2020, Viva Biotech has served 495 pharmaceutical customers worldwide. Through EFS business, the company has incubated and invested 56 early-stage companies, covering a variety of indications and cutting-edge medical areas, with a wide range of mechanisms. Viva Biotech's mission is to become the cradle for promising biotechnology companies all around the world. The company has been continuously building up a comprehensive one-stop drug services platform though strategic collaboration, acquisition and so on.

"We are very delighted to achieve the strategic acquisition agreement with SYNthesis. We believe that SYNthesis's technical platform and international team in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry and synthetic chemistry will quickly strengthen the capabilities of Viva Biotech from early drug discovery service to drug R & D downstream business, as well as boost The Company's downstream integration to CMC and CDMO fields. SYNthesis and Viva Biotech are going to form a good complementarity and broaden the diversity of customer groups," Dr. Chen Cheny Mao, Chairman and CEO of Viva Biotech said. "Through the active layout and establishment of a comprehensive one-stop drug service platform, Viva Biotech will continue to be committed to providing more customers and portfolio companies with higher quality of the full stage service of innovative drug research and development."

Dr. Xianyong Bu, Managing Director of SYNthesis said, "I am thrilled and delighted to have my team at SYNthesis join forces with the Viva team. Our preclinical small molecule pharmaceutical chemistry platform will be organically combined with the structure-based drug discovery and bioassay platforms of Viva Biotech, to provide a comprehensive preclinical R&D services for more customers. Together we will become a force to be reckoned with in the high-end medicinal chemistry space."

About Viva Biotech

Viva Biotech operates a leading structure-based, integrated drug discovery platform, providing drug discovery services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers worldwide. The company's mission is to become the cradle for promising biotechnology startups around the world. Viva Biotech actively combines conventional cash-for-service (CFS) and unique equity-for-service (EFS) approaches to realize a combination of short and long term innovation-driven returns. CFS business covers the full spectrum of its customers' needs for early-stage drug discovery, including target protein expression and structure research, hit screening, lead optimization, and drug candidate determination. EFS business also provides drug discovery and incubation services to high potential biotechnology start-ups around the world. As of June 30th, 2020, Viva Biotech has served 495 pharmaceutical customers worldwide, worked on over 1,300 independent drug targets, delivered approximately over 17,000 independent protein structures and incubated/invested 56 early-stage companies.

About SYNthesis

SYNthesis med chem (Hong Kong, S.A.R., China) Limited is a Shanghai- and Suzhou-based contract chemistry organisation focused upon delivering high-end medicinal chemistry and synthetic chemistry services to the global drug discovery sector.  With facilities in China and offices in Australia, UK and USA, the company's global reach covers high quality academic groups, biotech companies, and big pharma organisations.