Monday , July 23, 2007 15:04ET
By Jay Everitt, jeveritt@knobias.com
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (PPHM) announced that the company's proposal to investigate its antiviral agent bavituximab and other anti-phosphotidylserine (anti-PS) antibodies as potential therapies for hemorrhagic fever virus (HFV) infections has been selected for a contract award by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), pending negotiation of a final contract. In its notification announcing the selection of Peregrine's proposal, DTRA stated that its goal is to finalize the contract award within the next few months.
Peregrine outlined a five-year program in its proposal to the DTRA's 2007 Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative to assess the utility of its clinical stage anti-PS product candidate bavituximab and other anti-PS antibodies as potential therapies for HFV infections. Bavituximab is a monoclonal antibody that in preclinical studies has demonstrated encouraging activity against diverse viruses, including a hemorrhagic fever virus. Peregrine is developing bavituximab for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infections and has completed two HCV clinical studies showing a positive safety profile and promising signs of antiviral activity. This proposal includes funding for preclinical studies designed to confirm its antiviral activity against HFV infections, manufacturing and product scale-up and initiation of clinical trials.
In the proposal submitted to the DTRA, Peregrine has sought funding of approximately $44.5 million over the five years of the proposed project. The DTRA accepted Peregrine's full proposal as the basis for contract negotiations. The final scope of the contract award will be negotiated as part of this process.
"We are very pleased that our proposal to the DTRA has been selected for a contract award pending successful negotiation of a final contract," said Steven W. King, president and CEO of Peregrine. "The submitted proposal represents an excellent opportunity to move our programs forward in an area of antiviral research that we likely would not pursue without outside funding. The hemorrhagic fever viruses include deadly species that are believed to present significant threats as potential bio-weapons, and we therefore welcome the opportunity to obtain federal government support to help assess the potential of our anti-PS technology in the treatment of these dreaded diseases. The DTRA has indicated it hopes to conclude contract negotiations in a timely manner, and we look forward to being able to report on the outcome of these negotiations in the near future."
