Peregrine's cancer drug data disappoints; shares plunge

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(Global Markets) - Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (PPHM.O) said an independent assessment of data from a mid-stage trial showed unexpectedly high progression-free survival rates in lung cancer patients receiving standard chemotherapy, raising doubts about the future of its lung cancer trial.

The biopharmaceutical company's shares plunged 30 percent to their lifetime low of 63 cents on the Nasdaq. About 4.3 million shares of the company changed hands by 1202 ET, nearly seven times their 10-day moving average volume.

Peregrine said the trial tested its experimental cancer treatment, bavituximab, in combination with standard cancer treatments carboplatin and paclitaxel, against the two chemotherapy drugs alone in patients with frontline non-small cell lung cancer.

The company said patients receiving its bavituximab combination therapy survived for 5.8 months without their disease worsening, while patients on the standard therapies survived for 4.6 months.

However, according to an independent review, bavituximab combination showed median progression-free survival of 6.7 months, compared with 6.4 months exhibited in patients treated with the standard therapies alone.

"The unexpected long progression-free estimate for the control arm based on central reads confounds our ability to fully interpret this secondary efficacy endpoint," a company executive said in a statement.

Roth Capital analyst Joseph Pantginis cut his price target on the company's stock to $7 from $10 citing the progression-free survival "discrepancy," and said the released data "may not drive confidence in the study."

Tustin, California-based Peregrine is currently testing bavituximab as a potential treatment for several other oncology indications, including pancreatic cancer.

Overall survival from this trial is expected to be reported in the second half of 2012, Peregrine said.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui and Vidya P L Nathan in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)