Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

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5 Things Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Wants You to Know


Source: National Cancer Institute.

Last month small-cap biopharmaceutical company Peregrine Pharmaceuticals , which is focused on developing novel cancer immunotherapy products, reported its fourrth-quarter results, which handily surpassed Wall Street's expectations.

For the fourth quarter, Peregrine announced revenue of $9.3 million, a 44% increase from the year-ago period when it reported $6.5 million in revenue. Although Peregrine's pharmaceutical business is still wholly clinical, its contract manufacturing subsidiary Avid Bioservices has been driving its top-line higher.But higher sales didn't stop Peregrine's year-over-year loss from widening to $13.5 million, or $0.07 per share, from $10.6 million, or $0.06 per share, the year-ago quarter. Nonetheless, Peregrine's revenue came in close to $3 million ahead of estimates, and its loss was $0.01 per share narrower than expected.

On the surface this all sounds great, but these headline figures really give us no idea how healthy Peregrine's pipeline is, or how prepared the company is to survive over the long-term. In order to get those answers we need to turn directly to the horse's mouth, Peregrine's management team, and highlight the five most important takeaways from the company's conference call with investors and analysts.

In no particular order, here's what you need to know (quotes courtesy of S&P Capital IQ ).SUNRISE is on track

"Clinically, our SUNRISE trial in non-small cell lung cancer remains on target to complete patient enrollment by calendar year end." -- Steven King, CEO

Arguably the most important words to come out of Peregrine's conference call came within the first few sentences from CEO Steven King. The SUNRISE trial, which is a phase 3 study examining cancer vaccine bavituximab as a second-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, with a primary endpoint of a statistically significant improvement in overall survival relative to the placebo, remains on track to be fully enrolled by the end of this calendar year.

Aside from the fact that positive data in the SUNRISE study would validate Peregrine's drug development platform targeting phosphatidylserine receptors, remaining on track is important to help keep Peregrine's expenses under control. Despite having contract manufacturing revenue under its belt, Peregrine burned through nearly $43 million in cash in fiscal 2015. It's important its study remains on track so the company doesn't run out of cash.