April 28, 2006
It was a message of ‘we’re on track and we’re sticking to a successful plan’ at natural health company Comvita’s Annual General Meeting today.

Comvita chairman Neil Craig pointed to year-to-date 2006 sales 16 percent higher than 2005 and expanded investment in key staff and distribution channels.

“At this stage we expect a reasonably flat six month result relative to 2005 based on foreign exchange contracts in existence at higher rates than today and extra personnel resources put in place over recent months.”

But he says with foreign exchange cover contracts expiring and a lower currency in the second half, as well as recent investment in all of Comvita’s export markets and in US-based Derma Sciences, the 2006 full year result is expected to be ahead of 2005.

Chief executive Brett Hewlett’s presented to shareholders a vision that projected continued growth and increasing control over distribution channels through to 2010.

Hewlett says his vision, targeting $100 million of sales revenue (up from the $31.3 million in 2005), is firmly backed by strong growth in the natural healthcare market, increased investment in research and development by Comvita and further global acquisitions. He saw Comvita having a minimum of 25% of its revenue in non-bee products by that date.

Hewlett says Comvita targets some of the largest and most progressive categories of the natural healthcare industry, particularly ‘wound care’, worth an estimated $1 billion annual in the US alone. Other categories include immune health, digestive health, anti-inflammatory and general ‘well-being and vitality’ products.

“We always need to be innovating and verifying the efficacy of the health value of our products, therefore we will continue to invest heavily in technical resources and research and development.

Also at the AGM, Comvita also adopted an Executive Share Scheme for the leadership team at Comvita which will see 6.75 % of Comvita shares available to them provided key share price performance hurdles into the future are reached. The scheme was unanimously supported by the shareholders present.

Alan Bougen, Bill Bracks and David Cullwick were re-elected to the board.

END

Comvita board member Bill Bracks MNZM was honoured for his nine years as board chairman at the company’s AGM today.

Bracks arrived at Comvita in 1991 as a consultant and was only meant to stay three days. He stayed longer. In 1997 the Comvita board was formed and Bracks was named the first chairman, a position he only stepped down from in October last year.

Since Bracks’ first involvement with Comvita, the firm’s annual turnover has increased from $1.5 million to $30 million.

At Comvita’s AGM Bracks was presented with a large painting by well-known artist Michael Hight. Comvita commissioned Hight to paint a piece in keeping with his ‘beehive’ series for Bracks.

The artist has an ongoing interest in beehives and has referred to himself as a "phantom beekeeper".

In 2004 Bracks was recognised for his services to industry and his work as chairman and mentor of business start-ups and was presented by Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright with a New Zealand Order of Merit.

“It has been an interesting journey; exciting at times, full of drama at others and there have also been times of despair. But right now Comvita is poised for the future with a new chairman, a new CEO and clearly becoming an international player of significant magnitude,” he says.

Bracks says looking back at how far Comvita has progressed gives him a great sense of personal satisfaction.

“Comvita has always been a team situation. The level of camaraderie and team involvement at Comvita was an outstanding feature of the company. That’s continuing to this day. We’ve tried to foster this because business is about people, not buildings and products.”

ENDS

April, 19 2006

NZAX-listed natural health products company Comvita Limited, announced today the purchase of an additional US$1 million equity stake in their US licensing partner, Derma Sciences Inc.

Comvita has purchased US$1,000,000 (1,666,000 shares at US$0.60) of Derma Sciences' stock. Attached to this purchase is one warrant for every four shares at US$1 per share which can be converted to ordinary shares within a five-year period. This purchase, plus Comvita's purchase in February 2006 of an initial stake of US$500,000 with warrants for a further US$500,000, will take Comvita's total stakeholding in Derma Sciences' to approximately 10% of the company when the attached warrants are exercised.

Comvita CEO, Brett Hewlett says increasing Comvita's position in Derma Sciences will further enhance the value of the Derma investment for Comvita shareholders. "Comvita is on a strong international growth path – this strategic purchase secures our positioning with Derma, and will facilitate acceleration of Comvita's planned entry into the North American advanced wound care market."

"As highlighted previously, there are excellent opportunities for IP transfer, knowledge-sharing and product development between our organisations, benefiting both Comvita's global wound care position and Derma's sales and marketing efforts in the Americas."

Hewlett explains that the investment by Comvita, along with other capital raised by Derma Sciences, will be used to support Derma's US$6.5 million acquisition of Western Medical Ltd – a US-based manufacturer and marketer of specialty medical textile dressings.

Ed Quilty, CEO of Derma Sciences says he believes that the acquisition of Western Medical is an ideal fit for Derma's general woundcare business. "The product lines are highly complementary and the two companies utilize the same distributor network and sales points. We are acquiring only customer lists, some equipment and the Net Working Capital, so we should be able to
immediately integrate this into Derma's existing infrastructure with little incremental expense. In 2005, Western Medical's unaudited results showed revenue of approximately $6.5 million with strong gross margins. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings in 2006, and
significantly contribute to our overall profitability." Of the capital raised for the Western Medical acquisition Quilty especially noted that Comvita Limited of New Zealand had invested US$1.0 million. "we are very happy with Comvita's strong vote of confidence in our strategy".

Comvita's purchase of shares in Derma Sciences' will be debt-funded through the Company's existing banking facilities.

Background
In February 2006, Comvita signed a long-term exclusive licensing deal with US-based manufacturer and supplier of wound care products, Derma Sciences Inc. The licensing deal included Comvita's patents and other intellectual property, and covered the use of medical grade manuka honey-based products for the treatment of chronic wounds, skin tears, post-operative wounds and burns. Under the agreement, Derma Sciences received exclusive manufacturing
and marketing rights to Comvita's wound care products throughout the Americas (North, Central and South).

At the time of completing the licensing deal, Comvita purchased US$500,000 (666,666 shares at US$0.75) of Derma Sciences' stock together with warrants for a further 666,666 shares at US$0.75 which must be exercised within 12 months. Funds from this initial purchase of Derma shares will be applied by Derma to launch the manuka honey products in the Americas, once Derma receives FDA510K approval for the manuka honey-based products.

Derma Sciences Inc (DSCI)
Derma Sciences, Inc. is a fully integrated manufacturer, marketer and supplier of a complete line of products for wound and skin care based in Princeton, New Jersey. Its products can be broken down into five categories: Advanced Wound Care, Traditional Wound Care, Burn Care, Skin Care and Bathing, and Specialty Securement and Closure Devices. With three wholly owned and operated manufacturing facilities in St. Louis, Toronto, and China, Derma Sciences also offers contract manufacturing services for OEM or private label products.
Derma Sciences Inc (DSCI) is a NASDAQ-OTC stock.

Western Medical Ltd
Western Medical Limited, based in Tenafly New Jersey develops, manufactures and markets specialty medical textile dressings products including industry-leading compression wound care and support bandages, tubular retention bandages and protective dressings that are utilized in long term and home care settings. Western Medical's products are currently sold through independent local and regional distributors as well as national distributors. The company also manufactures for customers on an OEM, custom contract and private label basis.