Moscow, 9 June 2012 — OJSC Pharmstandard (LSE: PHST LI, MICEX-RTS: PHST RU) has approved a possible purchase of ordinary shares of OJSC Pharmstandard by its subsidiary OJSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva in the amount of up to RUR 1.1 billion.

OJSC Pharmstandard is the sole (100%) shareholder of its subsidiary OJSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva. The purchase of ordinary shares of OJSC Pharmstandard may be executed by the subsidiary at market price, in the amount of up to RUR 1.1 billion, during a 12 month period starting from the time of approval. OJSC Pharmstandard has also indicated in the approval that OJSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva has no intention to purchase the shares in the form of Global Depositary Receipts, GDR circulating at the London Stock Exchange, LSE.

The purchase of ordinary shares reflects the confidence of the management in the fundamental value of OJSC Pharmstandard’s ordinary shares and serves as an encouragement to the shareholders. In future, the purchased shares may be used by the group of companies Pharmstandard in merger and acquisition deals in line with the general development strategy of the group of companies Pharmstandard.

The use of available cash for the purchase of ordinary shares of OJSC Pharmstandard means that the following will not be affected: OJSC Pharmstandard’s planned investment and objectives with respect to the development of its production facilities in compliance with the European Good Manufacturing Practice standards (EU GMP), as well as acquisitions with the view to expanding the company’s products portfolio.

It is worth noting that in the past the group of companies Pharmstandard has had an experience of conducting similar financial operations. In February 2011, OJSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva purchased 1,824 thousand of ordinary shares of OJSC Pharmstandard for the amount of RUR 5,474 million.

About the Pharmstandard group of companies

The main sphere of activity of the enterprises comprising the Pharmstandard group of companies, are developing and manufacturing of high-quality modern pharmaceutical products which meet the requirements of the healthcare system and the expectations of patients.

The most well known Pharmstandard products today are Arbidol^®, Complivit^®, Pentalgin^®, Flucostat^®, Phosphoglive^®, Amixin^®, Afobazol^®, Rastan^® and Biosulin^®. The Pharmstandard group of companies manufactures more than 250 pharmaceutical products, including medicines for the treatment of cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes, growth hormone deficiency, gastroenterological, neurological, contagious diseases, metabolic disorders, cancer and other diseases. More than 100 Pharmstandard products (taking into account all forms and dosages) are included in the list of Vital and Essential Pharmaceuticals.
In the period from 2004 to 2011 more than 60 new pharmaceutical products were developed by Pharmstandard, in co-operation with the leading Russian scientific centres. Pharmstandard is a participant in a joint bio-engineering project, Generium, whose objective is the development of socially significant pharmaceutical products within the framework of the state program of import substitution.

By 2011 the Ñompany’s aggregate production capacity has reached more than 1,46 billion packages per year. The production capacity of the Pharmstandard group of companies comprises four modern pharmaceutical plants: JSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva (Kursk), JSC Pharmstandard-UfaVita (Ufa), JSC Pharmstandard-Tomskhimpharm (Tomsk), JSC Pharmstandard-Biolek (Kharkov, Ukraine) and the medical equipment and tools plant JSC TZMOI (Tyumen); Pharmstandard LLC is responsible for the purchase and supply of raw materials for manufacturing of pharmaceutical products at the production facilities of the Pharmstandard group of companies.

All the production facilities of the Pharmstandard group of companies fully comply with Russian national standards, while six production lines at JSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva have already received certificates of compliance with the EU GMP standards. All the plants are expected to convert to European GMP standards by 2014, according to the schedule approved by the company’s management.

On 4 May 2007 Pharmstandard placed its shares during IPO on Russian Trading System (RTS), Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) at London Stock Exchange (LSE).

http://www.pharmstd.com