A Nevada corporation; its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Yew Bio-Pharm Holdings
Limited (individually, “Yew HK”), a corporation organized under
the laws of Hong Kong, and Heilongjiang Jinshangjing Bio-Technology Development
Co., Limited (individually, “JSJ”), a corporation organized in the
People’s Republic of China, (“China” or the “PRC”);
and a deemed variable interest entity, or VIE, Harbin Yew Science and Technology
Development Co., Ltd. (individually, “HDS”), a corporation organized
in the PRC, and Harbin Yew Food Co. LTD (individually, “HYF”), the
subsidiary of HDS, a corporation organized in the PRC.
We are a major grower and seller of yew trees and manufacturer of products
made from yew trees in China. We also sell raw material, including the branches
and leaves of yew trees, used in the manufacture of TCM. The yew raw material
contains taxol, and TCM containing yew raw material has been approved in the
PRC for use as a secondary treatment of certain cancers, meaning it must be
administered in combination with other pharmaceutical drugs. The yew industry
is regulated in the PRC because the yew tree is considered an endangered species.
In the first quarter of 2015, we started to sell wood ear mushroom.
We believe that our business is built upon five unique components:
We have entered into several land use agreements with various parties, which
provide the potential for us to grow a large number of yew trees on large areas
of land over the next few decades, although we cannot currently estimate the
number of trees we will grow or the total amount of land we will put into production
over such period.
We employ proprietary, patented accelerated growth technology, the Asexual Reproduction
Method, to bring yew trees to commercialization decades faster than growing
yew trees naturally.
Because of our more productive and faster rate of yew cultivation, we have a
sufficient supply of raw material to allow us to use the branches and leaves,
rather than the bark, of yew trees, to sell to customers for the purpose of
making TCM. The yew industry is highly regulated in the PRC because the yew
tree is considered an endangered species. By harvesting only branches and leaves
of yew trees we respond to both environmental sensitivities and regulations,
because cutting the bark of the yew trees will damage the trees and stop it
from growing new branches.
We have permits from the Heilongjiang provincial government to sell our yew
trees and manufacture handicrafts using yew timber. We believe that we are one
of only a handful of companies in the PRC with permissions to manufacture handicrafts
using yew timber.
The TCM raw materials and yew tree segments of our business are tax-free in
the PRC.
Using patented accelerated growth technology developed by our founder and President,
Zhiguo Wang, based on principles of asexual propagation and cloning, we can
bring yew trees to maturity and commercialize them in as little as two-to-three
years, compared to more than 50 years needed for naturally grown yew trees.
Additionally, we have permits from the Heilongjiang provincial government to
sell our yew trees and products made from yew trees. We believe that we are
one of only a few companies in the PRC with such permission.
We operate in five business segments: TCM raw materials, yew trees, handicrafts,
wood ear mushroom and others. We sell TCM raw materials in the form of yew tree
branches and leaves to our customers, primarily an affiliate, to manufacture
TCM containing taxol. We began the TCM raw materials segment in 2010.
Since 1996, we have grown Japanese yew trees (also referred to in China as
Northeast yew trees), taxus cuspidata , on mountain hillsides near Harbin and
cultivate them in four nurseries we operate near Harbin. We have successfully
cultivated more than eight million yew nursery seedlings in four nurseries.
These nurseries occupy approximately 19,759 Mu (approximately 2,957 acres) of
forested land. We currently have the capacity to grow up to two million yew
nursery seedlings annually. We also have contractual rights to use an additional
1,000,000 Mu (approximately 166,667 acre) site in Wuchang, which land we currently
do not utilize, for future expansion of our yew tree growing operations.
Northeast yew trees grow well in the climate of Northeast China. Using our patented
Asexual Reproduction Method, developed by our founder and President, Zhiguo
Wang, based on principles of asexual propagation and cloning, we can bring yew
trees to maturity and commercialize them in as little as two-to-three years,
compared to more than 50 years of maturity period for naturally grown yew trees.
We believe that utilizing the Asexual Reproduction Method addresses an imbalance
between supply and demand for yew trees, both for reforestation and use in the
production of cancer-fighting TCM.
The Northeast yew is a small- to medium-sized evergreen tree, typically growing
from between 35 and 65 feet tall, with a trunk up to 6-1/2 feet in diameter.
The bark is thin and scaly brown. The leaves are lanceolate, flat and dark green,
typically between 1/2 and 1-1/2 inches long and about 0.1 inches broad, arranged
in a spiral pattern on the stem. The Northeast yew tree is relatively slow growing
compared to other species of yew trees, but can be very long-lived. It is estimated
that a Northeast yew tree can live up to 2,000 years. The growing cycle of a
Northeast yew tree is extremely long and regeneration is difficult.
Yew trees are scarce and, traditionally, it takes a long time to bring them
to commercialization. It can take more than 50 years for a yew tree to mature
naturally for pharmaceutical use. Our Asexual Reproduction Method shortens this
period significantly. We begin with cuttings from natural yew trees, which we
transplant at our nurseries. By using our Asexual Reproduction Method, the success
rate of maturation is enhanced and in approximately two-to-three years the yew
tree is able to be used for commercialization. We use some trees in their entirety
and parts of other yew trees that we need and take the rest of the tree itself
back to the forest to finish full growth to maturity in 10-15 years, creating
a new generation of mature yew trees.
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