BEIJING, May 10 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- On April 11, 2010, after a nearly two-year trial, the ten arbitration cases with Beijing Un-Assegai Technical & Trade Co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Assegai"), a leading distributor of clinical diagnostic products in China, as claimant and U.S. Abbott Laboratories (Abbott U.S.; NYSE: ABT) as respondent have been decided by the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), which has recently rendered the arbitral awards thereof. The advanced arbitral awards made by three different arbitral tribunals held that Abbott U.S. broke and violated the contracts with Assegai and thereby awarded Assegai a nearly one million U.S. dollar settlement.
According to the arbitral awards, Assegai was the largest distributor of Abbott medical diagnostic products in the North China area, on the basis of the cooperation between Assegai and Abbott U.S. that started in 1999 soon after Abbott U.S.'s entrance into the Chinese market. However, in November 2007, in the 9th successive year of this cooperation, Abbott U.S. cut off the supply of reagents to Assegai without any justification, regardless of the fact that Assegai had just purchased some very costly equipment from Abbott U.S.
Mr. Yongfeng Cao, president of Assegai, commented: "We made a notable contribution in helping Abbott's products to become the first-line products in the Chinese market; in return, however, Abbott U.S. took advantage of its market dominance and deprived us of our right to supply reagents to our customers. By doing this, Abbott U.S. violated our right to property ownership and use, which led to losses of roughly 20 million U.S. dollars. Fortunately, we are gratified that the arbitral tribunals have ruled in our favor, which gives us the opportunity to recover all our economic losses. Against the backdrop all other international clinical diagnostic producers' focus on the Chinese market and sincere wishes for long-term cooperation with China, Abbott U.S.'s behavior shocked all key industry players in China. Next, Assegai will continue in our quest through another one hundred arbitration cases or civil actions that have been filed against Abbott U.S. at CIETAC or local Chinese courts, as we seek further compensation for those estimated losses amounting to 20 million U.S. dollars."
SOURCE Beijing Un-Assegai Technical & Trade Co. Ltd.