On January 20, 2016 Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPHM) (NASDAQ:PPHMP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapeutics to stimulate the body’s immune system to fight cancer, reported that members of the company’s scientific team will deliver podium presentations focused on the role of combination immunotherapies in the treatment of cancer at two upcoming immunotherapy conferences (Press release, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, JAN 20, 2016, View Source [SID:1234508819]). Jeff T. Hutchins, Ph.D., Peregrine’s vice president, preclinical research, will speak at Immunotherapy World 2016, being held January 25-27, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Additionally, Bruce Freimark, Ph.D., research director, preclinical oncology at Peregrine, will present at GTCBio’s 8th Immunotherapeutics & Immunomonitoring Conference, being held January 25-26, 2016 in San Diego, CA.
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Details of the presentations are as follows:
Immunotherapy World 2016
Title: "Combination Immunotherapies – Opening the Gate: Increasing Tumor Infiltrating Activated T-Cells to Optimize and Expand the Benefits of Immune Checkpoint Therapies."
Presenter: Dr. Hutchins
Time/Date: Monday, January 25 at 3:40 p.m. Eastern time.
8th Immunotherapeutics & Immunomonitoring Conference
Title: "Blockade of Phosphatidylserine Enhances the Anti-Tumor Activity of Targeted Therapy and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors by Reducing Immunosuppressive Cells in the Tumor Microenvironment."
Presenter: Dr. Freimark
Time/Date: Tuesday, January 26 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time.
In his talk, Dr. Hutchins will discuss strategies for expanding the therapeutic benefit seen with immuno-oncology monotherapies to a broader range of patients using combination treatment approaches. Specifically, he will highlight the strategy of leveraging treatments capable of increasing the number and activity of T-cells in the tumor microenvironment to optimize the therapeutic benefit of immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1/anti-PDL-1 agents.
Dr. Hutchins will draw on the company’s experience in working with preclinical equivalents of bavituximab, Peregrine’s lead investigational phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting immunotherapy candidate. PS-targeting antibodies have been shown to shift the immunosuppressive functions of immune cells in tumors, resulting in anti-tumor immune responses. Peregrine has generated results from multiple preclinical and clinical-translational studies demonstrating enhanced anti-tumor activity and immune activation when combining equivalent PS-targeting antibodies with conventional chemotherapy or checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 agents.
Dr. Freimark will highlight data showing that blocking PS signaling in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors promotes a localized, anti-tumor response. He will share research findings demonstrating that PS-targeting antibodies enhance the anti-tumor activity of anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1 antibodies in models of melanoma and breast cancer and correlate with an increase in the infiltration of activated T-cells and the induction of adaptive immunity.
Both presentations will also highlight key recent research findings showing that PS-signaling pathway inhibitors demonstrate multiple signs of immune activation in low or negative PD-L1 tumors. This suggests that PS-targeting antibodies have the potential to show a clinical benefit in patients with low PD-L1 levels and who do not generally benefit from checkpoint treatment alone. The potential for bavituximab to improve the clinical outcome of checkpoint inhibitors will be evaluated as part of Peregrine’s ongoing clinical research collaboration with AstraZeneca. To this end, a global Phase II study of bavituximab in combination with AstraZeneca’s durvalumab, an anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, in patients with previously treated squamous or non-squamous NSCLC is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2016.
About Bavituximab: A Targeted Investigational Immunotherapy
Bavituximab is an investigational chimeric monoclonal antibody that targets phosphatidylserine (PS). Signals from PS inhibit the ability of immune cells to recognize and fight tumors. Bavituximab blocks PS and, in turn, is believed to remove this immunosuppressive signal and send an alternate immune activating signal. PS targeting antibodies have been shown to shift the functions of immune cells in tumors, resulting in robust anti-tumor immune responses.