BioAlliance Pharma files appeal to the French Supreme Court contesting decision on SpePharm and SpeBio

France’s BioAlliance Pharma (Euronext Paris: BIO) has filed an appeal to the French Supreme Court contesting a preliminary procedural decision on jurisdiction in the arbitration against Dutch drugmaker SpePharm Holdings and their joint venture SpeBio. The proceedings to the arbitral tribunal are still at a preliminary stage concerning the scope of its jurisdiction. This tribunal will have to rule on the relief sought by BioAlliance Pharma and the counterclaims of SpePharm and SpeBio.

In this arbitration, BioAlliance Pharma argues that SpePharm and SpeBio, the common subsidiary which is managed by SpePharm and which was created at the time in order to market Loramyc (miconazole), breached their contractual obligations. These breaches resulted in a delay in the marketing of Loramyc and which compelled BioAlliance to rescind the contracts in question.
In 2009, SpePharm filed claims for financial dames and losses against BioAlliance, after the French company terminated a license agreement and said that BioAlliance had totally unrealistic commercial expectations for Loramyc in Europe. BioAlliance contests the decisions rendered on the issue of the scope of the jurisdiction of the arbitral tribunal.

These decisions or any public declaration of SpePharm on this subject have no bearing on the merits of the case and the decisions that will be issued in the future once the question of jurisdiction is finally decided, says BioAlliance.