Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[EndtheFed1776]

Why were front line bavi treatment results not so great?

TUSTIN, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 03/09/12 -- Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: PPHM) today announced top-line overall response rate (ORR) and current median progression free survival (PFS) estimates from its phase II trial comparing bavituximab plus carboplatin and paclitaxel versus carboplatin and paclitaxel alone in patients with front-line Stage IIIb and Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Based on investigator assessments, patients treated with bavituximab plus carboplatin and paclitaxel demonstrated a current median PFS estimate of 5.8 months versus 4.6 months in patients treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel alone, a 26% improvement. These results are consistent with a prior phase II single-arm study testing the same bavituximab combination in front-line NSCLC patients which showed a 6.1 month median PFS and with several prior published studies with carboplatin and paclitaxel in front-line patients that showed approximately a 4.5 month median PFS. Based on independent central imaging reads, patients demonstrated a current median PFS estimate of 6.7 months for the bavituximab-containing arm and 6.4 months for the chemotherapy-only arm. Peregrine expects to report median overall survival (OS) from this trial in the second half of 2012.

"We are pleased that the PFS results for the bavituximab-containing arm by both local and central image interpretation actually met or exceeded our expectations going into the study. While the data from the investigator assessments were in alignment with previous published reports for carboplatin and paclitaxel and suggested an encouraging difference between the treatment arms, the unexpected long PFS estimate for the control arm based on central reads confounds our ability to fully interpret this secondary efficacy endpoint," said Joseph Shan, vice president, clinical & regulatory affairs at Peregrine. "We now await median OS data from this study which is the most clinically relevant endpoint from a drug development standpoint."

And were the OS results ever published? I could not find a press release for the second half of 2012.