Peregrine Establishes China Subsidiary, Files Suit Against CTL

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has established a wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE), Peregrine Beijing Pharmaceuticals Technology Development Ltd., in Beijing, China.

“The Chinese pharmaceutical market is currently the ninth largest in the world and is growing rapidly, doubling in size in the past five years with continued robust expansion expected,” said Steven W. King, president and chief executive officer of Peregrine. “China therefore represents an important strategic market opportunity for Peregrine, and our new wholly owned subsidiary will give us the opportunity to leverage our products and technology in this market. China also represents a tremendous resource for drug discovery and development, and we intend to explore all options for the development of our product candidates in China.”

Also, Peregrine has filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract against its licensee, Cancer Therapeutics Laboratories, Inc. (CTL), that has licensed certain rights under the company’s Tumor Necrosis Therapy (TNT) technology platform exclusively for development and commercialization in China. The lawsuit, filed in CA’s Superior Court for Orange County, alleges breaches of contract, including failure to provide clinical data to Peregrine from a sublicensing arrangement in China regarding Peregrine’s TNT agent, failure to account for a current sublicense agreement with Shanghai Medipharm Biotech despite repeated attempts by Peregrine to obtain evidence of an agreement, and failure to provide accounting of any revenue, equity and data derived from that sublicense agreement.

“We regret having to resort to a lawsuit, but CTL has not complied with our agreement to provide us with information related to the purported Medipharm sublicense or substantive data on their activities regarding the development and marketing of our TNT agent for lung cancer,” said Paul Lytle, chief financial officer of Peregrine. “We therefore intend to vigorously pursue our rights and remedies.”