Dragon Commences Shipment of Erythropoietin (EPO) to Three New International Markets : Dominican Republic, Trinidad-Tobago and Kosovo

News

Dragon Pharmaceutical Inc. (OTC BB: DRUG; TSX: DDD; BBSE:DRP) is pleased to announce that Dragon’s recombinant Erythropoietin (EPO) products have been granted market approvals in the Dominican Republic and Trinidad-Tobago as advised by Dragon’s licensees. In addition, the health authority of Kosovo has accepted our licensee’s application for the market approval and under such a circumstance, Dragon’s licensee is allowed to bid for government tender and has since won such a tender. Initial shipment of our EPO products to all three new international markets has started during the fourth quarter of 2004. Together with the already approved markets in China, Brazil, India, Egypt, Peru and Ecuador, Dragon’s EPO products are being marketed in a total of 9 countries across Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

“Even though these three new markets do not represent a large market size, it is important and encouraging to Dragon that our EPO is being approved and becomes available in ever more countries around the globe. This represents a most valuable confirmation of the quality and the acceptability of our EPO. It further validates our international strategy and rewards the efforts made by Dragon and our licensees. We consider this especially important since we plan to leverage our combined international regulatory and marketing expertise to commercialize other pharmaceutical products coming from the proposed and actively pursued acquisition of Oriental Wave” said Dr. Alexander Wick, President and CEO of Dragon.