Catch Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) Shares on This Pullback
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) shares dipped 2.60% on Monday to $0.637 and were flat in after-hours trading. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.28 to $0.77. The company has a market cap of $184.75 million at 297.71 million shares outstanding.
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that operates through two segments: Peregrine, which is engaged in the research and development of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer, and Avid, which is engaged in providing contract manufacturing services for third party customers on a fee-for-service basis while also supporting its internal drug development efforts.
Bavituximab, which is its lead immunotherapy candidate, is a monoclonal antibody that targets and binds to phosphatidylserine (PS), a immunosuppressive molecule that is usually located inside the membrane of healthy cells, but then flips and becomes exposed on the outside of cells in the tumor microenvironment, causing the tumor to evade immune detection. The company’s subsidiary is Avid Bioservices, Inc. (Avid). Avid provides integrated current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) services from cell line development to commercial biomanufacturing.
In a press release, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals announced the presentation of positive new data from the company’s ongoing collaboration with researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. This will highlight the phosphatidylserine (PS)-targeting antibodies to enhance the anti-tumor activity of adoptive T cell transfer therapy without triggering any off-target toxicities.
While adoptive T cell transfer remains one of the most exciting new approaches to treating cancer, to date the toxicity associated with the treatment has limited its potential. We are encouraged that these study results showed that the combination of anti-PS and adoptive T cell treatment led to enhanced anti-tumor effect without any evidence of additional off-target side effects,” said Taha Merghoub, Ph.D., co-director of the Ludwig Collaborative Laboratory at MSK. “We believe that these findings may support potential applications for this combination in solid tumors in the future.”
Cancer immunotherapy thought-leaders, Taha Merghoub, Ph.D. and Jedd D. Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D., evaluated and compared the anti-tumor activity and off-target toxicities of adoptive T cell transfer therapy in combination with either PS-targeting antibodies. Additional study results demonstrated that the PS-targeting antibodies decreased tumor-induced immunosuppression as evidenced by a decrease in immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Tregs) and M2 macrophages, consistent with Peregrine Pharmaceuticals belief that bavituximab may modulate the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and enhance the activity of immunotherapy agents.
These study results provide further support for our belief that anti-PS agents such as bavituximab can play an important role as part of combination cancer treatments. This is directly tied to the agents’ ability to modulate the tumor microenvironment to combat the immunosuppression that limits the activity of CAR T and immunotherapies,” said Joseph Shan, vice president of clinical and regulatory affairs at Peregrine Pharmaceuticals.
DISCLAIMER: There is a substantial risk of loss with any speculative asset, especially small cap stocks. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not constitute recommendations to buy or sell a stock. Do your own research before committing capital.
Why Pharmacyte Biotech Inc (OTCMKTS:PMCB) Shares Fell 13%
Pharmacyte Biotech Inc (OTCMKTS:PMCB) shares were down 13.04% on Wednesday but recovered 1.39% in after-hours trading. Share prices have been trading in a 52-week range of $0.02 to $0.17. The company has a market cap of $96.95 million at 849.90 million shares outstanding.
Pharmacyte Biotech Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is focused on developing and preparing to commercialize treatments for cancer and diabetes based upon a cellulose-based live cell encapsulation technology known as Cell-in-a-Box. This Cell-in-a-Box technology will be used as a platform upon which treatments for various types of cancer, including advanced, inoperable pancreatic cancer, and diabetes will be developed.
Aside from that, Pharmacyte Biotech is developing therapies for pancreatic and other solid cancerous tumors involving the encapsulation of live cells placed in the body to enable the delivery of cancer-killing drugs at the source of the cancer. It is also developing a therapy for Type I diabetes and insulin-dependent Type II diabetes based upon the encapsulation of a human cell line genetically engineered to produce, store and secrete insulin at levels in proportion to the levels of blood sugar in the human body using its Cell-in-a-Box technology.
Pharmacyte Biotech recently announced that an audio recording of the company’s shareholder call, which was held on February 7 is now available for playback.
I would like to thank everyone who listened to our shareholder call update yesterday. I would also like to apologize for the call abruptly cutting off during the question and answer session. The call stopped at the one-hour mark. That has never happened before. The call was scheduled to continue for one and a half hours. Since we wanted to answer all of the questions that were submitted, we have recorded the balance of the questions and answers,” explained Pharmacyte Biotech CEO Kenneth Waggoner.
The audio recording with remaining questions and answers of the shareholder call can be found here: https://fccdl.in/b0lcv21IV.
Earlier in the year, Pharmacyte Biotech announced its plans to initiate a clinical trial in pancreatic cancer, involving the application of Cell-in-a-Box to go head to head with the current gold standard in pancreatic cancer treatment called gemcitabine. The company has completed a pre-IND meeting with the FDA so it could proceed with the Phase 1 of treatment soon. Once this announcement is made, further bullish upside is expected for the company. This month, the company was granted orphan drug designation for pancreatic cancer treatment.
Pharmacyte Biotech has made a huge upside breakout from its slow downtrend for the most part of 2016, signaling further upside for the stock. Volume has been subdued since the bullish break, leading to some profit-taking and consolidation, but the bullish flag remains intact even as price has pulled back. Buyers could simply be waiting for more updates from the company before taking the stock further north, possibly for another test of the $0.15 mark in the near-term then onto $0.20 and beyond.
DISCLAIMER: There is a substantial risk of loss with any speculative asset, especially small cap stocks. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not constitute recommendations to buy or sell a stock. Do your own research before committing capital.