AdAlta has received approval from the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation to open a representative office in Shanghai. It is a small step in cost and a significant one in capability: for the first time we will have an official presence, and the ability to engage local staff and contractors, in the country where the cellular immunotherapies we want to license are being invented and tested.

China runs more than 970 cellular immunotherapy clinical trials and is home to over 350 developers. That is the pool our ‘East to West’ strategy draws from. Until now we have worked it from Melbourne. A representative office is the established, cost effective legal form through which a foreign company sets up an official presence in China, and it changes three things for us: who can act for AdAlta locally, how we are seen by partners and originators, and whether relationships are progressed continuously or in bursts around travel schedules.

Practically, it strengthens our management of the existing collaboration with Shanghai Cell Therapy Group Co Ltd (“SHcell”) for EW-001, the systematic search for our next in-licensing candidates, and our ability to add Chinese manufacturing and development partners.

One thing does not change. AdAlta remains Australian-domiciled and holds intellectual property rights outside greater China. Where value is created and captured by AdAlta is unaffected by this approval.