Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Doses First Patient in Clinical Trial of Bavituximab in HCV Patients Co-Infecte...( - New Trial in Important Patient Subg...),Health

- New Trial in Important Patient Subgroup Will Assess Safety and Anti-Viral

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TUSTIN, Calif., Oct. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for the treatment of cancer and hepatitis C virus infection (HCV), today announced that the first patient has been dosed in a clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and pharmacokinetics of bavituximab in patients co-infected with HCV and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The multi-center trial is being conducted initially at Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark, NJ under the guidance of Dr. Stephen Smith, director of the Peter Ho Memorial Clinic, the largest HIV/AIDS treatment facility in the state.

"We are delighted that patient treatment has begun in this important clinical trial that was designed to evaluate an extended bavituximab treatment schedule in an important HCV patient population," said Steven W. King, president and CEO of Peregrine. "We believe that bavituximab has the potential to act on both HCV and HIV infections, and this trial gives us our first opportunity to assess the drug's anti-viral activity in this underserved group of patients."

This open-label, dose escalation study will be conducted in approximately 24 patients chronically infected with HCV and HIV. Patient cohorts will receive ascending dose levels of bavituximab weekly for up to eight weeks. HCV and HIV viral titers and other biomarkers will be evaluated, although they are not formal study endpoints.

In the United States alone, an estimated 300,000 individuals are co-infected with HCV and HIV, representing up to
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