Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) shares were down 9.17% on Monday to $0.394 but recovered 6.60% in after-hours trading. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.29 to $1.33. The company has a market cap of $95.83 million at 242.38 million shares outstanding.
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that operates in two segments. One segment, Peregrine, is engaged in the research and development of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer. The other segment, Avid, is is engaged in providing contract manufacturing services for third party customers on a fee-for-service basis while also supporting its internal drug development efforts.
Its lead immunotherapy candidate is bavituximab, which is a monoclonal antibody that targets and binds to phosphatidylserine, a immunosuppressive molecule that is usually located inside the membrane of healthy cells, but then flips and becomes exposed on the outside of cells in the tumor microenvironment, causing the tumor to evade immune detection.
In Monday’s press release, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals reported that top-line data from the Phase III SUNRISE trial of bavituximab in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer were presented in European Society for Medical Oncology 2016 Congress. Included in this oral presentation were interim efficacy and safety outcomes, as well as initial findings from the company’s ongoing biomarker analysis of samples collected during the study.
While we were disappointed with the trial being discontinued earlier in the year, we are excited by the fact that we are beginning to learn important information from the trial through the ongoing biomarker analysis program that will be critical in helping guide the future clinical development of bavituximab,” said Joseph Shan, VP of clinical and regulatory affairs at Peregrine Pharmaceuticals.
Recall that the SUNRISE Phase III trial was discontinued earlier this year based on a pre-specified interim analysis, but patient treatment and follow-up in the study were allowed to continue.
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