New Hope For PAH Patients in Vietnam

<div align="justify">Today, Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) sufferers in Vietnam now have access to a novel therapeutic option following the approval by the Ministry of Health of Bosentan (Tracleer), a drug for treatment of PAH in Hanoi.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Bosentan is the leading PAH treatment (WHO Functional Class III and Class IV) - a rare, chronic blood vessel disorder of the lung in which the pressure in the pulmonary artery rises above normal levels and may become life threatening. PAH patients suffer a worse quality of life and similarly poor survival rate than most forms of cancer.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">It used to be that the only hope for late stage PAH patients was to go for a heart or lung transplant, which normally comes with all the challenges and risks associated with major surgery,&rdquo said Keith McNeil, Professor of Medicine at University of Queensland and CEO of The Royal Brisbane and Women&rsquos Hospital.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">The approval for Bosentan&rsquos use in Vietnam is great news for PAH patients, as well as for the medical field in general, as PAH sufferers here will gain access to a therapy that can positively affect not only clinical progression, but can also result in better quality of life.&rdquo</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Bosentan will be marketed by Pharmalink&trade Vietnam and be available through prescription only. Doctors will need to ascertain a clinical diagnosis and which stage of the disease a patient is in prior to making the decision to prescribe Bosentan as part of the overall treatment.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Bosentan was developed by Swiss based pharmaceutical company Actelion. Actelion is one of the world&rsquos fastest growing biopharmaceutical companies over the past ten years, having focused on the discovery, development and commercialisation of drugs in areas of significant unmet clinical need.</div> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify">Actelion aims to discover or in-license and develop a steady stream of new products as revenue sources, based on first-in-class small molecule compounds. In doing so, Actelion aims to develop innovative treatments that can bring therapeutic advantage to patients and economic benefit for the community at large.</div> <div align="justify"><strong>H.Ly</strong></div>