Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM) announced that the first patient in their clinical trial has been dosed with Bavituximab. Peregrine developed Bavituximab as a targeted therapy for patients infected with hepatitis c virus infection (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
The trial is being conducted at Saint Michael's Medical Center in Newark, N.J. by Dr, Stephan Smith. "We believe that bavituximab has the potential to act on both HCV and HIV infections, and this trial gives us our first opportunity to assess the drug's anti-viral activity in this underserved group of patients" said Steven W. King, president and CEO of Peregrine.
The trial, conducted on 24 patients that are chronically infected with HCV and HIV, consists of ascending dose levels administered weekly for 8 weeks.
According to the press release on PRNewsWire "Bavituximab is a monoclonal antibody in a new class of anti-phosphotidylserine (PS) immunotherapeutics that targets and binds to cellular components that are normally not present on the outside of cells, but which become exposed on certain virally infected cells and on the surface of enveloped viruses, including both HCV and HIV. Bavituximab helps stimulate the body's immune defenses to destroy both the virus particles and the infected cells. Since bavituximab's PS target comes from the host and not the virus, bavituximab may be less susceptible to the development of anti-viral resistance."
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