Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) Hits Multi Month Highs on lung cancer drug trial results

Share in Peregrine Pharmaceuticals(NASDAQ:PPHM) rose more than 47 percent on Friday as trials of its experimental drug for lung cancer patients showed that patients taking the drug lived twice as many months as those treated with only chemotherapy.

The company plans to continue testing the drug bavituximab as a second-line treatment for lung cancer and it also hopes to move soon to get a partner to help its fund the next phase of clinical trials.

King recently told Minyanville that he’s had 15 meetings with potential development partners. A partner would help Peregrine pay for the third and final phase of studies generally needed for US approval of a new treatment. King said he hopes to find a partner that would allow Peregrine to retain some of the US sales rights for the drug if it should ever be approved.

“We are currently in discussions with several potential pharmaceutical partners who have expressed great interest in our bavituximab oncology program,” Peregrine CEO Steven King said in a statement on Friday.

Will PPHM Continue To Hit New Highs? Find Out Here

The shares soared 47 percent before trading was brought to halt in the Nasdaq and made multi year high of $5.08.

The stock has already gained 600 percent in the past three months.

In the Phase-1 clinical trials where 121 patients were studied, those who given a lower dose of bavituzimab and the chemotherapy drug docetaxel lived for 11 more months compared to just 5.6 months for patients who were treated with chemo and placebo.

Researchers presented the data on the trials at a medical meeting in Chicago on Friday afternoon.

Docetaxel is currently used for lung cancer patients. Sanofi (SNY) sells the drug branded as Taxotere, while Hospira (HSP) sells generic docetaxel.  

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