Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Crashes 55%: Here's Why

Shares of

, a bio-pharmaceutical company that holds various antibodies for the treatment of cancer in clinical trials, were trading lower by more than 65 percent early Friday morning at $0.37 following a business update. Peregrine

after Thursday's market close that it will discontinue the ongoing

of bavituximab in patients with previously treated cell lung cancer. The company noted that its decision to stop the trial was based on the recommendation of the study's Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC) following an interim analysis which demonstrated the therapy did not show a sufficient improvement in patients overall survival. "Let me start by taking this opportunity to thank all of the patients, their families, and the physicians who participated in the SUNRISE trial. While we are deeply disappointed by this early outcome from the SUNRISE trial, we plan to take a deliberate and detailed approach in reviewing and verifying all available data from the trial in order to understand what subgroups or other patient characteristics may have impacted the performance of the study. While we perform this analysis, we plan to put our other chemotherapy combination studies on hold until we have a clear understanding of the SUNRISE study results," said Steven W. King, president and chief executive officer of Peregrine. "While this is an unexpected and disappointing setback for the bavituximab chemotherapy combination clinical program, we have not seen anything in this trial result that diminishes our enthusiasm for advancing our immuno-oncology (I-O) combination trials. The I-O combination studies are based on different mechanistic synergies that are clearly separate from the chemotherapy combination being evaluated in the SUNRISE study. In addition, it is important to note that in no way do these results have any impact on our contract manufacturing business conducted through our wholly owned subsidiary, Avid Bioservices. This business has shown consistent revenue growth and has been instrumental in maintaining a strong cash position and our plan is to continue growing this business."