Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Awarded DTRA Contract Worth up to $44.4 Million to Develop Bavituximab for Viral Hemorrha...(te to the country's defenses while also ...)

About Bavituximab

Peregrine's monoclonal antibody bavituximab is the first in a new class of targeted immunotherapeutics that binds to phosphatidylserine (PS), a specific component of certain cellular membranes. PS is normally present only on the inside of cell membranes, but becomes exposed on the external surface of enveloped viruses and the cells they infect. Enveloped viruses are responsible for about half of all human viral diseases, including HCV, influenza, HIV, cytomegalovirus and hemorrhagic fevers. Scientists believe that bavituximab helps block the ability of viruses to infect cells and also helps stimulate the body's natural immune defenses to destroy the virus particles and infected cells. In preclinical studies, bavituximab has demonstrated the ability to bind to a wide range of enveloped viruses and virally infected cells, and it has shown promising activity in animal models of serious viral diseases. In two Phase I monotherapy trials in patients with chronic HCV infection, bavituximab demonstrated encouraging signs of anti-viral activity and appeared safe and well tolerated, with no dose-limiting adverse events. A clinical trial of bavituximab for the treatment of HCV patients co-infected with HIV is ongoing. Bavituximab is also in multiple Phase II trials for the treatment of solid cancers.

About the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was founded in 1998 to integrate and focus the capabilities of the Department of Defense that address the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) threat. The mission of the DTRA is to safeguard America and its allies from WMD (e.g. chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high yield explosives) by providing capabilities to reduce, eliminate, and counter the threat, and mitigate its effects. U
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