Global law firm White & Case LLP has advised Nestlé Health Science S.A., a fully owned subsidiary of Nestlé S.A., on a 50/50 joint venture with Chi-Med Group, a pharmaceutical and healthcare group listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIM).
The joint venture, to be named Nutrition Science Partners, will research, develop, manufacture and market innovative nutritional and medicinal products derived from botanical plants, and will give Nestlé Health Science access to one of the world’s leading Traditional Chinese Medicine libraries, consisting of more than 50,000 extracts from over 1,200 different herbal plants.
Nutrition Science Partners is scheduled to start the next stage of clinical trials on a first-of-its kind botanical product to manage mild to moderate inflammatory bowel disease in early 2013. The joint venture will focus on gastrointestinal health and may in the future expand into the metabolic diseases and brain health areas.
The completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval.
The White & Case team comprised of partners William Kirschner and Jonathan Olier (Singapore), Jane Plomley (Washington, DC) and Virginia Tam (Hong Kong), supported by associates Waltter Kulvik, Timothy Goh and Ciara Yeo (Singapore), Jiong Deng (Shanghai) and trainees Yuri Kim (Singapore) and Jacqueline Choi (Hong Kong).
