Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

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Follow this: Combination Immunotherapy Produces Striking Results against Melanoma
By Jim Stallard on Friday, May 8, 2015

“Incredibly High Response Rate”
One study showed that giving both ipilimumab and nivolumab produced significantly better outcomes than ipilimumab alone in patients with advanced melanoma. The researchers tested the two-drug combination in 142 patients with metastatic melanoma who hadn’t yet received other treatment. The response rate — based on tumor shrinkage — was significantly higher in the patients receiving the combination therapy (61 percent) compared with patients receiving ipilimumab plus a placebo (11 percent).

The effect of the combination therapy also proved more durable, as patients receiving both drugs survived longer without their disease progressing. Those receiving the combination therapy were more likely to have side effects (54 percent) than those receiving ipilimumab plus placebo (24 percent), but these side effects were manageable.

“The incredibly high response rate seen in this trial for patients receiving the combination therapy now lets us tell patients that they have a high chance of significantly shrinking their melanoma with this treatment,” says MSK medical oncologist Michael Postow, the report’s first author. “More research is needed, however, to know if it is necessary to give all patients this combination or if patients should receive drugs like nivolumab and ipilimumab in sequence.”

“We are excited about these results and believe they support the principle that rationally combining effective medicines is an approach to achieving better outcomes for patients,” adds medical oncologist and immunologist Jedd Wolchok, who led the study together with Stephen Hodi, an immunologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.


Then this press release just weeks later:

announced that the company has entered into a sponsored research agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to explore the potential of Peregrine's proprietary phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting antibody platform. The goal of the research is to identify effective treatment combinations based on Peregrine's PS-targeting agents, including Peregrine's lead clinical agent bavituximab, with other checkpoint inhibitors or immune stimulating agents that will further guide the bavituximab clinical development program.

The studies at MSK will be performed under the direction of Taha Merghoub, Ph.D., Associate Attending Biologist, Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service, Ludwig Collaborative and the Swim Across America Laboratory, a part of the laboratory of Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., a leader in the field of cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Wolchok serves as the Chief, Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service, Lloyd J. Old Chair for Clinical Investigation as well as an Associate Director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSK.

""The phosphatidylserine (PS) signaling pathway is a very interesting target for modulating the immune system's response to cancer. We look forward to exploring the potential of PS-targeting agents alone and with other immune modulators that may lead to novel advances in cancer therapy," said Dr. Wolchok."


http://ir.peregrineinc.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=915472