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Peregrine widens Q1 losses, but revenues more than triple

Published: 19:57 09 Sep 2011 BST

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Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) widened its first quarter losses, it said Friday, but revenues more than tripled, leading the company to boost its sales outlook for its contract manufacturing unit.

For the three months ending July 31, the biopharmaceutical company posted a net loss of $8.1 million, or $0.11 loss per share, compared to a $7.7 million loss, or $0.14 loss per share, a year ago.

Peregrine shares slipped 4.13% to $1.22.

Revenues, however, rose over 76% to $5.7 million in the quarter. The bulk of sales stemmed from the recognition of manufacturing contract revenues from Peregrine's subsidiary, Avis Bioservices. Contract manufacturing more than tripled to $5.4 million, from $0.98 million a year ago.

As a result, Peregrine boosted its full year sales guidance for this unit to a range of $10 to $12 million. It originally anticipated $8.5 million in contract manufacturing revenues.

Revenues from Peregrine's government contracts were nil this quarter, compared to $2.1 million a year ago, while licensing revenues improved 88%.

The Tustin, California-based company also provided updates for its phase two trials involving its bavituximab antibody, which allows the immune system to recognize and fight cancer and viral infections.

Its phase two second-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) trial is evaluating overall response rate in 120 patients, which it hopes to enroll by the start of the fourth quarter.

The company is also currently enrolling 70 patients to participate in its phase two pancreatic cancer trial, and hopes to complete the enrollment of 66 patients in its phase two trial for the treatment of the Hepatitis C virus.

Peregrine recently announced it achieved a 20.7-month median overall survival rate from a phase two trial evaluating treatment in patients with locally advanced breast cancer.

The company also said it will meet with the FDA in the fourth quarter of the year to discuss registration pathways that are appropriate for its Cotara treatment, which involves an antibody being directly administered into a brain tumour, destroying it from the inside out.

"Over the last quarter we have reported promising median overall survival from two prior Phase II oncology trials and completed patient enrollment in the first of our four ongoing randomized Phase II trials for bavituximab," concluded president and CEO, Steven W. King.

"As we execute our strategies to advance bavituximab for multiple cancer and viral disease indications and define a registrational path for our brain cancer therapy Cotara, we are gearing up for important clinical data and regulatory meeting milestones later this year and into next year."

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