Peregrine Gets Positive HCV Results

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals has achieved positive results demonstrating that its first-in-class anti-viral compound Tarvacin Anti-Viral appeared safe and well-tolerated in a Phase I study in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients. The data will support initiation of repeat dose and combination therapy trials that the company expects to begin later this year.

In the ascending, single-dose trial, 24 patients with chronic HCV who had either failed or who no longer responded to standard-of-care treatment were administered Tarvacin Anti-Viral. The drug was well tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported at any of the four dose levels tested, and no potential dose limiting toxicities were observed. Reported adverse events were mild, infrequent, transient and likely not drug-related.

Tarvacin Anti-Viral is the first in a new class of anti-phosphotidylserine (PS) immunotherapeutics that helps stimulate the body’s immune defenses to destroy both the virus particles and the infected cells. Similar to their anti-viral mechanism, anti-PS immunotherapeutics also bind to phospholipids exposed on tumor blood vessels in all solid cancers tested to date, and they have shown promise in a number of preclinical cancer models. Tarvacin Anti-Cancer is in Phase l trials for the treatment of advanced refractory solid tumor cancers.