Dragon Announces Completion of US$7.0 Million Private Placement

News

Dragon Pharmaceuticals Inc. (“Dragon”) is pleased to announce the completion of its recent private placement of 3,500,000 units (the “Units”) at a price of US$2.00 per unit. Each Unit consists of one common share and one non-transferable share purchase warrant (the “Warrant”). Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one half common share at a price of US$2.00 per share for a period of two years. The Company has received cash and subscriptions for gross proceeds of US$7,000,000 and net proceeds, after finders’ fees and expenses, of approximately US$6,500,000.

Dragon also announces Erythropoietin (EPO) sales of 243,155 doses (standard reference dosage of 2,000 IU) for the first half of 2001, representing an increase of 45% over sales of 168,218 doses during the first half of 2000. Revenues for the first half of 2001 were US$1,266,755 compared to US$1,458,912 for the same period last year. Revenues did not increase proportionately to sales volumes due to competitive EPO price reductions in China over the past year. Sales for the three months ended June 30, 2001 were 126,965 doses for $602,341 compared to 93,864 doses for $797,127 for the three months ended June 30, 2000.

The Company incurred a net loss of US$1,828,896 (US$0.11 per common share) during the first half of 2001, compared with US$403,777 (US$0.03 per common share) for the same half in 2000, as a result of increased production of EPO to build inventories for anticipated international sales orders. The loss for the three months ended June 30, 2001 was US$972,713 or US$0.06 per share compared to US$168,997 or US$0.01 per share for the three months ended June 30, 2000. At the end of the second quarter, the Company’s cash and short-term investments totaled US$5,215,107 compared with US$6,340,315 at December 31, 2000.