With an estimated 20 million allergy sufferers and a strong demand on the part of the medical community for quality products, the Russian market represents a real opportunity for Stallergenes.

The main products in Stallergenes’ injectable and sublingual ranges will soon be the subject of registration applications. This partnership will enable Stallergenes to meet more than 80% of the needs of allergy sufferers in Russia and the CIS by 2011.

"We’re delighted to be teaming up with Solvay Pharmaceuticals to target the potential growth this new market represents. Thanks to its franchise and its considerable expertise recognized by allergy specialists, Solvay Pharmaceuticals will enable us to promote the desensitization standardized products, and notably the sublingual route, and their benefits for patients," declared Albert Saporta, Stallergenes’ Chairman and CEO.

"We’re tremendously enthusiastic about the prospect of collaborating with the world leader in sublingual desensitization therapy and making its innovative standardized products available to practitioners," emphasizes Mr. Jens Neuschaefer, Vice President, Regional Director, Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

Stallergenes is a European biopharmaceutical company dedicated to desensitization therapies for the prevention and treatment of allergy-related respiratory diseases, such as rhinoconjunctivitis and allergic asthma. A pioneer and leader in sublingual desensitization treatments, Stallergenes devotes 21% of its turnover, in gross terms, to Research and Development and is actively involved in the development of a new therapeutic class: sublingual desensitization tablets.

In 2008, Stallergenes had a turnover of 171 million euros and more than 500,000 patients were treated with Stallergenes desensitization products.

Solvay Pharmaceuticals is a research driven group of companies that constitutes the global pharmaceutical business of the Solvay Group. These companies seek to fulfill carefully selected, unmet medical needs in the therapeutic areas of neuroscience, cardiometabolic, influenza vaccines, gastroenterology and men’s and women’s health. Its 2008 sales were 2.7 billion euros, and it employs more than 9,000 people worldwide.

Solvay Group is an international chemical and pharmaceutical Group with headquarters in Brussels. It employs more than 29,000 people in 50 countries. In 2008, its consolidated sales amounted to 9.5 billion euros, generated by its three sectors of activity: Chemicals, Plastics and Pharmaceuticals.