Peregrine's Ph II breast cancer drug meets first-stage endpoint

The USA's Peregrine Pharmaceuticals says its lead candidate bavituximab achieved the primary endpoint in the first stage of an ongoing Phase II  clinical trial in patients with advanced breast cancer.

The trial is an open-label, two-stage design to evaluate the safety and  efficacy of bavituximab in combination with the chemotherapy drugs  carboplatin and paclitaxel in locally-advanced or metastatic breast  cancer patients. 14 of the 15 patients enrolled in Stage A were deemed  evaluable for tumor response, with seven achieving an objective response  by around eight weeks, after completing two treatment cycles. Six of the  subjects achieved partial tumor responses and one saw a complete tumor  response. With the Stage A endpoint achieved, the design of the trial  allows for an additional 31 study patients to be enrolled.