Data Presented at Society of Nuclear Medicine 2009 Annual Meeting Supports Potential of Peregrine's Cotara(R) for the Treatment of Br...( - Dosimetry Study Results Sh...)

- Dosimetry Study Results Show Greater Than 300-Fold More Radiation Delivered to Tumor as Compared to Other Normal Organs -

- All Patients in the First Two Cohorts Have Met or Exceeded the Expected Median Survival Time for Recurrent GBM Patients -

TORONTO and TUSTIN, Calif., June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM) today reported that researchers will present data at the SNM 2009 Annual Meeting showing that its brain cancer agent Cotara(R) specifically localizes to brain tumors at high concentrations with minimal radiation exposure to other organs. Cotara is a targeted monoclonal antibody linked to a radioisotope being developed as a potential new treatment for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a deadly form of brain cancer. The results reported today from an ongoing dosimetry study at U.S. brain cancer centers show that in patients dosed in the first two cohorts of the study, the concentration of Cotara in brain tumors was on average more than 300-fold higher than in other normal organs. In addition, these patients have all either met or exceeded the expected median survival time of six months for recurrent GBM patients. Cotara is currently being tested in this Phase I dose response and dosimetry trial and in a Phase II clinical trial in recurrent GBM patients.

Cotara specifically targets cells at the center of brain tumors, so its radioactive payload is able to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue largely unaffected. In this study, lead author Sui Shen, Ph.D., associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his colleagues assessed the concentration of Cotara in GBM patients' tumors and in their healthy brain tissue, as well as in their thyroid, stomach, heart and bone marrow. He found that
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