Avid Bioservices, Inc. Secures Biomanufacturing Contract With Affitech AS

TUSTIN, CA--(Marketwire - September 30, 2010) - Avid Bioservices, Inc., a leading provider of integrated biomanufacturing services and a subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PPHM), today announced it has secured a biomanufacturing contract to supply clinical material over the coming year to Affitech A/S (COPN: AFFI), the antibody medicines company. The initial contract for committed services provides for several large-scale cGMP manufacturing runs as well as other cGMP-related services.

“Given our long-term relationship, Avid is an ideal partner for providing biomanufacturing services for our fully human antibody AT001/r84, as they have direct experience with Peregrine’s anti-VEGF technology platform as well as this novel antibody we discovered from this technology,” said Martin Welschof, Managing Director of Affitech. “Over the coming year, we look forward to having Avid’s support as we expedite our clinical development plans for AT001/r84 for select growing pharmaceutical markets.”

About AT001/r84
AT001/r84 is a fully human, selective therapeutic antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and has demonstrated encouraging effects on immune cells in preclinical models. Using Peregrine’s anti-VEGF antibody technology platform, Affitech discovered AT001/r84, a fully human, selective blocker of VEGF binding to VEGF receptor 2 (VEGFR2).

About Avid Bioservices
Avid Bioservices provides a comprehensive range of high quality cGMP manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries to support manufacturing of cGMP commercial and clinical products. With over 10 years of experience producing monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins in batch, fed-batch and perfusion modes, Avid’s services include cell banking, stability testing, clinical and commercial product manufacturing and purification, bulk packaging, final product filling and regulatory strategy, submission and support. The company also provides a variety of process development activities, including cell line optimization, analytical methods development and product characterization. For more information about Avid, please visit www.avidbio.com.