Options subsidiary expands into Far East

Options Cassoulides Public Co Ltd (OPT) announced that its subsidiary is expanding into the Far East. The Company’s subsidiary, Choice Pharma Ltd based in London has now expanded into Taipei, Taiwan. In April 2008, Choice Pharma Asia Pacific proceeded with the establishment of a company under the name Choice Pharma Asia Pacific Ltd, based in Singapore. The Company has entered into an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline and Astrazeneca for the provision of services regarding clinical research in Taiwan. According to the Company, it is also intended to expand its operations in China during this summer. Analysts at CISCO believe that this is an effort to offset the weak results attributed to the continuous decrease of operating margins in the publishing division as well as the conference division if we ignore the one-off improved profitability for 1Q08, which we estimate is due to the planned “World Anaesthesiologists Congress” undertaken by OPT two years ago.