Encorium Group, Inc. Acquires Progenitor International Research, a Vaccine Focused Emerging Market CRO

WAYNE, Pa., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Encorium Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENCO), (the "Company") a full service multinational clinical research organization (CRO) conducting studies in over 30 countries for many of the world's leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, today announced that it has acquired Progenitor Holdings AG, a corporation organized in Switzerland and its wholly-owned subsidiaries organized in Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, India and Hong Kong for cash and stock valued at EURO 1.7 million, plus earn-out consideration of cash and stock with a value of up to EURO 1.5 million.  

Progenitor is a European headquartered emerging market clinical research organization providing international drug development services in emerging market regions.  Progenitor brings value and quality to its clients' clinical trial programs by offering emerging market geography together with experienced clinical staff in those regions.  

Executive Officer, Dr. Kai Lindevall said, "We are very pleased and proud to announce this transaction.  Progenitor is a prestigious emerging market company in the field of clinical research.  The acquisition of Progenitor will allow us to offer our clients access to the value of conducting clinical trials in emerging markets such as Latin America, India and Asia Pacific while providing excellent trial management and flexible study delivery.  The acquisition provides a key advancement of our strategic goal of becoming the world's leading vaccine clinical research organization.  We believe our combined experience in the vaccine field is the most impressive amongst medium sized CROs and that the potential of the combined organizations is substantial.  We are also happy to broaden our executive team with two experienced and successful entrepreneurial leaders, Dr. Renee E. Moore and Mr. Klaus D. Albrecht, the founders of Progenitor.  Renee and Klaus will play significant roles in the combined business and are expected to contribute significantly to the management of Encorium."  

Renee E. Moore, President and CEO of Progenitor said, "The strategic combination of the teams at Encorium and Progenitor is an exciting step in the creation of a vaccine focused CRO that can meet clients' needs internationally.  Together the organizations have been involved in over 70 vaccine and infectious disease trials with over 50,000 patients recruited in recent years.  We believe both entities commitment and focus on excellence in vaccine trial delivery will result in a value added solution for our customers desiring to run trials throughout Europe and the emerging markets.  

"We are truly inspired by the momentum that exists due to the complementary list of customers of the two organizations, which already includes many important pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies specializing in vaccine drug development.  Furthermore, we are excited by the opportunity to work with the exceptional leadership team at Encorium, including Dr. Kai Lindevall and his executive team."

About Encorium Group, Inc.

Encorium Group, Inc. is a global clinical research organization specializing in the design and management of complex clinical trials and Patient Registries for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company's mission is to provide its clients with high quality, full-service support for their biopharmaceutical and medical device development programs. Encorium offers therapeutic expertise, experienced team management and advanced technologies. The Company has drug and biologics development as well as clinical trial experience across a wide variety of therapeutic areas such as infectious diseases, cardiovascular, vaccines, oncology, diabetes endocrinology/metabolism, gene therapy, immunology, neurology, gastroenterology, dermatology, hepatology, women's health and respiratory medicine. Encorium believes that its expertise in the design of complex clinical trials, its therapeutic experience and commitment to excellence, and its application of innovative technologies, offer its clients a means to more quickly and cost effectively move products through the clinical development process.

This press release contains forward-looking statements identified by words such as "estimate," "project," "expect," "intend," "believe," "anticipate" and similar expressions.  Those statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) our success in attracting new business and retaining existing clients and projects; (ii) the size, duration and timing of clinical trials we are currently managing may change unexpectedly; (iii) the termination, delay or cancellation of clinical trials we are currently managing could cause revenues and cash-on-hand to decline unexpectedly; (iv) the timing difference between our receipt of contract milestone or scheduled payments and our incurring costs to manage these trials; (v) outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries; (vi) the ability to maintain profit margins in a competitive marketplace; (vii) our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel; (viii) the sensitivity of our business to general economic conditions; (ix) other economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors affecting our operations, markets, products, services and prices; (x) announced awards received from existing and potential customers are not definitive until fully negotiated contracts are executed by the parties; (xi) our backlog may not be indicative of future results and may not generate the revenues expected; (xii) uncertainties regarding the availability of additional capital; (xiii) uncertainties regarding the execution of change orders by our clients for work already performed; (xiv) uncertainties regarding continued listing of our common stock on Nasdaq; (xv) our ability to successfully integrate Encorium and Progenitor, and (xvi) the risk that we may not have sufficient funds to operate our business. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the result of any revision of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Please refer to the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 and the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.

SOURCE Encorium Group, Inc.