New Actavis / Bioton alliance to shake up diabetes market / Global managed-care offering to help bring down treatment costs for 366 million diabetics

Warsaw, Poland (ots) - Actavis and Bioton (WSE:BIO) announced
today that they have formed a joint venture company for the
development and registration of insulins, including analogue
insulins. Within the framework of the joint-venture, Bioton will be
responsible for the development and manufacture of insulin products,
while Actavis will be granted an exclusive licence to commercialise
those products under the Actavis brand throughout the European Union
and the United States of America, as well as in Albania, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Croatia, Iceland, Japan, Kosovo, Lichtenstein,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland. In Poland,
both companies will offer the insulin products under their respective
brands, Bioton being a Polish company.

The announcement, at a press conference in Warsaw today, was made
jointly by Ryszard Krauze, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of
Bioton, and Claudio Albrecht, CEO of the Actavis Group and Chairman
of the Actavis Board of Directors.

Actavis has agreed to remunerate Bioton with the aggregate amount
of EUR 55.5 million, of which EUR 22.25 million at signing today. The
remainder (EUR 33.25 million) will be paid in instalments in
accordance with agreed milestones relating to the registration
process involving recombined human insulin (RHI).

Based on the sales volumes estimated by the parties, the Actavis'
revenues from the sale of the Insulins by Actavis into the markets in
the initial period of 7 years from launch are expected to exceed EUR
1.5 billion. Pursuant to the agreement, the parties will share on an
equal '50/50' basis the profits from the sale of the insulins
performed by Actavis, as well as the development and registration
costs related to Bioton insulins.

In addition to the above, the Bioton Group have also signed
memoranda of understanding with Actavis for the sale of insulins in
24 additional territories, including Turkey and Australia. Actavis
will pay an additional consideration of up to EUR 1,900,000,
including EUR 1,000,000 at signing. Both parties expect that sales of
Bioton's recombinant human insulin by Actavis into some of the
additional territories shall commence on the turn of 2012 and 2013.
The profits from the sale of the insulins in these additional
territories will again be shared on an equal basis (50/50). Formal
documentation of these arrangements is expected to be concluded in
the following weeks.

Actavis CEO Claudio Albrecht believes the new alliance will create
tremendous value for Actavis and Bioton and their respective
shareholders. "The recombinant- and analogue insulins alone should
add around EUR 900 million (USD 1.2 billion) to our enterprise value.
Thanks to the collaboration agreement with Bioton, we will be among
the leading manufacturers of insulin, including analogue insulins,"
predicted Albrecht.

Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Bioton S.A. Ryszard Krauze
commented, "The cooperation with Actavis has a strategic importance
for Bioton. We will jointly introduce modern insulins, including
analogue insulins. For the last two years, we have been consistently
increasing the sales of our products based on collaborations with
leading global pharmaceutical firms such as Bayer HealthCare in China
and GlaxoSmithKline in Russia. Today, we are pleased to welcome
another large pharmaceutical firm to our group of partners -
Actavis."

DIABETES - A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC New data released by the
International Diabetes Federation (IDF) indicates that more than 366
million people worldwide are living with diabetes. Due to poor diet
and sedentary lifestyles, diabetes is rapidly becoming a global
epidemic, and the number of diabetes patients is expected to rise to
a figure in excess of 550 million by 2030. The World Health
Organisation (WHO) projects that the global insulin market will grow
from the present level of approximately USD 14 billion to USD 54
billion over that same period.

On average, a patient with diabetes type 2 takes almost 30
different medicines over the course of the disease. In light of that
fact, the collaboration with Bioton represents a more fundamental and
strategic concept in terms of treating diabetes, according to Claudio
Albrecht.

"The diabetes idea for us is a much wider one than just promotion
and sale of recombinant human insulin or insulin analogues", he said.
"We are encountering competitor giants when it comes to insulin and
we have to maximise the competitive advantages that we clearly have.
Bioton's insulin products have a market presence of more than 10
years' standing, with an excellent safety and efficacy profile. This
puts us in a situation where we can overcome more easily any
potential doubts that key opinion leaders might have when it comes to
biosimilars.

"Furthermore, we differ in one aspect very strongly in comparison
with the originators," Albrecht added, highlighting the extensive
range of generic type-2 oral diabetes drugs that Actavis already
offers. Actavis' pipeline also includes high-value 'gliptin'
products" and several fixed dose combinations with Metformin.

COMPREHENSIVE CARE OFFERING Albrecht noted that the opportunity to
market a much broader portfolio in the context of diseases related to
diabetes is a great one. "Actavis is the only company that can offer
such a broad diabetes- and related diseases portfolio. We can tell
payers that we cover the whole diabetes segment for a cost that is
probably considerably less than they have been paying to date."

CEO of Bioton SA S?awomir Ziegert said, "For Bioton, the
collaboration with Actavis will, in addition to bringing direct
financial benefits, fuel faster expansion into high-margin markets,
while supporting the implementation of our product synergy strategy
and further growth in the area of cardio diabetology. Patients value
highly the unique and comprehensive care offered by Bioton, a package
which includes insulin, injectors, glucometers, oral diabetes
medicines and an educational programme. All these elements provide an
opportunity to extend our collaboration with Actavis in many markets
around the world."

Contact
Actavis Group
Frank Staud
EVP Corporate Communication
Mobile: +41/79/230'95'78
E-Mail: fstaud@actavis.com