On September 9, 2015 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 financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2016 ended July 31, 2015, and provided an update on its advancing clinical pipeline and other corporate developments (Press release, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, SEP 9, 2015, View Source [SID:1234507437]).
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Highlights Since April 30, 2015:
"Over the years, Peregrine’s foundational science and positive clinical results have consistently pointed to bavituximab’s potential as a high-value, next-generation anti-cancer agent," said Steven W. King, president and chief executive officer of Peregrine. "In the last three months, these achievements have compelled others to align with us as we continue to develop bavituximab. In May, Peregrine announced an exciting collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to evaluate combinations of bavituximab with other checkpoint inhibitors and immune stimulatory agents for the purpose of developing new and increasingly effective anti-cancer treatments. Only three months later, we announced a collaboration with AstraZeneca to clinically evaluate bavituximab in combination with AstraZeneca’s investigational anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, durvalumab (MEDI4736) in multiple solid tumors. These collaborations with world leaders in immuno-oncology speak to the promise of bavituximab and validate our ever-growing enthusiasm for the investigational product. We look forward to advancing both of these programs and completing enrollment of our SUNRISE trial in the next few months."
Clinical Development Highlights
Peregrine and AstraZeneca entered into a cancer immunotherapy clinical trial collaboration to evaluate bavituximab in combination with AstraZeneca’s investigational anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, durvalumab (MEDI4736). The planned Phase I/Ib trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of bavituximab in combination with durvalumab in multiple solid tumors. Peregrine is working closely with AstraZeneca to finalize the trial design.
Phase III SUNRISE clinical trial in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to enroll patients and remains on track to complete patient enrollment by end of calendar year 2015.
Peregrine announced plans to expand the bavituximab clinical development program to include a Phase II trial to evaluate the combination of bavituximab and Opdivo (nivolumab), an anti-PD-1 antibody, in previously treated, metastatic NSCLC. This trial is expected to be initiated by the end of calendar year 2015.
Peregrine announced plans to expand the bavituximab clinical development program to include a Phase II/III trial to evaluate bavituximab with chemotherapy combinations in HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer. This trial is expected to be initiated by the end of calendar year 2015.
Supportive Research Highlights
Peregrine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center entered into a research agreement to explore the potential of Peregrine’s proprietary PS-targeting antibody platform. The goal of the research is to identify effective treatments combining bavituximab with other checkpoint inhibitors or immune stimulating agents.
New data presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s (IASLC’s) World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) from a translational study of bavituximab demonstrated the ability of bavituximab, alone or in combination with docetaxel, to induce signs of immune activation in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient-derived tumor samples, particularly when there was negative PD-L1 expression in the tumor sample. These data further support the potential mechanistic synergies for bavituximab with chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway.
Summary data presented at the Combination Immunotherapy Strategies session at the 10th Annual Immunotherapy and Vaccine Summit (ImVacS), highlighted key findings from several recent bavituximab-focused studies including: the potential of bavituximab to shift the tumor microenvironment from immuno-suppressive in which tumors evade immune detection to a state of immune activation in which the immune system recognizes and fights the tumor; bavituximab’s potential to increase the number of activated CD8+ cells in the tumor, which stimulates PD-1 expression, potentially increasing the number of patients able to respond to PD-1 and PD-L1 targeting immunotherapies; and, results from several clinical and preclinical studies in a range of tumor types showing that bavituximab and bavituximab-like antibodies, in combination with conventional therapy, have consistently demonstrated estimated survival curves that plateau.
Data from preclinical studies presented at the 2015 ASCO (Free ASCO Whitepaper) annual meeting demonstrated the ability of the company’s PS-targeting antibodies to significantly increase the prevalence of tumor infiltrating CD8+ T-cells and immune-activating cytokines, while decreasing tumor-promoting macrophages and myeloid cells. These findings highlight the ability of the antibodies to enhance the anti-tumor effects of both chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors.
Avid Bioservices Highlights
Avid’s new manufacturing suite is fully constructed and the first internal pilot run is currently underway to verify all systems and equipment are properly functioning. Company plans to announce the launch of the new facility in the near term, allowing us to meet our internal manufacturing timelines as well as those of our third-party clients.
Contract manufacturing committed backlog reached $42 million from existing customers covering services to be completed in FY 2016 and into FY 2017.
Corporate Highlights
The European Patent Office (EPO) granted Patent Number 2,269,656, licensed to Peregrine titled "Selected Antibodies Binding to Aminophospholipids and their Use in Treatment, Such as Cancer." The patent covers bavituximab as a composition of matter and for use in therapy, such as for treating cancer including in combination with radiotherapy or chemotherapy, e.g., with docetaxel. This important patent expands upon the company’s intellectual property portfolio, which now numbers more than 140 worldwide issued patents and pending applications for the bavituximab oncology program.
Financial Results
Total revenues for the first quarter of FY 2016 were $9,671,000, compared to $5,496,000 for the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. The increase was primarily attributed to an increase in contract manufacturing revenue generated from Avid Bioservices.
Contract manufacturing revenue from Avid’s clinical and commercial biomanufacturing services provided to its third-party clients for the first quarter FY 2016 were $9,379,000, compared to $5,496,000 for the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. Peregrine expects third-party contract manufacturing revenue for FY 2016 to be between $30 and $35 million. In addition to providing biomanufacturing services to its third-party clients, Avid will continue to support the clinical and potential commercialization of bavituximab.
Total costs and expenses in the first quarter of FY 2016 were $23,425,000, compared to $18,667,000 in the first quarter of FY 2015. This increase was primarily attributable to current quarter increases in research and development expenses associated with the SUNRISE Phase III trial and increases in the cost of contract manufacturing associated with higher reported revenue. For the first quarter of FY 2016, research and development expenses were $13,918,000, compared to $10,201,000 for the first quarter of FY 2015. For the first quarter of FY 2016, cost of contract manufacturing was $4,608,000, compared to $3,583,000 for the first quarter of FY 2015.
Peregrine’s consolidated net loss attributable to common stockholders was $15,101,000, or $0.08 per share, for the first quarter of FY 2016, compared to a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $14,157,000, or $0.08 per share, for the same prior year quarter.
Peregrine reported $59,016,000 in cash and cash equivalents as of July 31, 2015 compared to $68,001,000 at fiscal year ended April 30, 2015.
More detailed financial information and analysis may be found in Peregrine’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, which will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today.