(Yicai Global) Aug. 15 -- A unit under Yantai Dongcheng Pharmaceutical Group has won the exclusive rights to distribute Israeli biotech firm Exalenz Bioscience's Helicobacter pylori detection products on the Chinese mainland.

Yantai Dongcheng Dayang Pharmaceutical penned the five-year deal on Aug. 13, its parent said in a statement yesterday. It gives Dayang Pharma sole rights to sell Exalenz's urea-13C breath test products and services for detecting H. pylori on the mainland and will be automatically renewed upon expiration.

H. pylori is a type of bacteria that can live in the human intestine tract and lead to stomach ulcers and eventually cancer. Nearly 1,000 medical institutions in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia and China use Exalenz breath tests to detect H. pylori infection, which affects more than half of China's 1.4 billion strong population.

Exalenz will provide its own after-sales technical support for the product, according to the statement.

Editor: James Boynton