News Details
NCCN Awarded $2 Million in Research Funding from Peregrine Pharmaceuticals to Study Bavituximab in Various Cancers
The NCCN Oncology Research Program (ORP) was awarded a $2-million grant from Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to facilitate studies of bavituximab in various cancers.
FORT WASHINGTON, PA —The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) Oncology Research Program (ORP) has been awarded a $2-million grant from Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to study bavituximab, a first-in-class treatment approach for various cancers.
“NCCN is very pleased to collaborate with Peregrine Pharmaceuticals on their first-in-class novel targeted monoclonal antibody, bavituximab,” said Robert C. Young, MD, Interim Vice President, ORP, NCCN. “We look forward to a productive interaction in both clinical and pre-clinical studies undertaken at the NCCN Member Institutions.”
“This collaboration with NCCN will allow us to significantly expand our clinical evaluation of bavituximab and augment Peregrine’s internal investigator sponsored trial (IST) program,” said Steven W. King, President and Chief Executive Officer, Peregrine. “Importantly, NCCN shares our strong research interest in evaluating unique bavituximab combination therapies for the treatment of cancer, and the group’s oversight of the program will allow for the conducting of many more studies than would have been otherwise possible.”
Bavituximab is an investigational immunotherapy designed to assist the body's immune system by targeting and modulating the activity of phosphatidylserine (PS), a highly immune-suppressive signaling molecule expressed broadly on the surface of cells in the tumor microenvironment. Peregrine’s PS targeted inhibitor, bavituximab, is thought to reverse the immunosuppressive environment that many tumors establish in order to proliferate and spread, while also fighting cancer by activating immune cells that target and fight canceri. According to Peregrine, a broad set of pre-clinical and translational data has been assembled that supports the ability of bavituximab to improve the therapeutic activity of a range of cancer treatments, from traditional approaches, such as chemotherapy and radiation, to novel immuno-oncology agents such as checkpoint inhibitors.
The first phase of the program will involve the establishment of an NCCN Bavituximab Request for Proposals Development Team to evaluate existing data and to discuss and define the data and type of studies necessary to further characterize the safety and clinical effectiveness of bavituximab.
The NCCN ORP draws on the expertise of the investigators of the NCCN Member Institutions and NCCN Affiliate Research Consortium (ARC) to facilitate all phases of clinical research. This research is made possible by collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in order to advance therapeutic options for patients with cancer.
The NCCN ORP will utilize the grant from Peregrine Pharmaceuticals to support investigator-initiated clinical and correlative studies at NCCN Member Institutions and their affiliate community hospitals for bavituximab. To date, this successful research model has received approximately $58 million in research grants and supported more than 132 studies that have produced a number of publications in peer-reviewed journals.
To learn more about the NCCN ORP and ongoing clinical trials, visit NCCN.org/ORP.
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i Yin Y, Huang X, Lynn KD, Thorpe PE. Phosphatidylserine-targeting antibody induces M1 macrophage polarization and promotes myeloid-derived suppressor cell differentiation. Cancer immunology research 2013 Oct; 1(4): 256-268.