Celsion Corporation today announced that it has established a joint venture to develop its technologies and distribute its products in Greater China with Asia Pacific Life Sciences Group Limited, a group of Hong Kong-based investors.

Celsion is a biotechnology company dedicated to the development and commercialization of treatment systems for cancer and other diseases using focused-heat energy, either administered alone, or in combination with other therapeutic devices, heat activated genes and heat activated drugs.

Dr. Augustine Cheung, Celsion's President and Chief Executive Officer said, "We are excited to have established a presence in China. We believe that the growing healthcare industry and evolving regulatory climate in China currently are very receptive to new technologies for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. In this environment, the opportunity for our tumor targeting, heat-activated liposome and gene products for cancer treatment could be significant. Additionally, the Chinese medical community historically has been interested in heat as a therapeutic modality, especially for the treatment of cancer. Over the last several years we have built a network of China-based scientists, clinicians and thought leaders in the field of heat-based therapies who now anticipate a new focus on heat-based treatments in cancer care. Through our joint venture with Asia Pacific Life Sciences Group Limited, we expect to continue the process of demonstrating the efficacy of our technology, which has already produced very promising results in animal studies, in treating a wide variety of cancers and localized infectious and inflammatory diseases.

"In the short term, we expect that the pre-market approval of our Microfocus BPH 800 Microwave Urethroplasty(TM) System will be expedited in China once we receive approval from the FDA to market the system in the United States. Such an approval will enable the rapid roll-out of the system in Greater China and the early generation of revenues."