The Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:PPHM) Board of Directors has recently declared a quarterly dividend of roughly $0.66 per share on the 10.50% Series E Convertible Preferred Stock of the company, which is payable on January 3 to shareholders of record on Friday’s close.
The quarterly dividend payment is tantamount to an annualized 10.50% per share based on the stated liquidation preference of $25 per share.
New Preclinical Trial Data
Last month, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals has presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) 2016 Annual Meeting new encouraging data from various preclinical trials of antibody candidates targeting phosphatidylserine (PS).
The presented data have highlighted that PS-targeting antibodies synergize with checkpoint inhibitors and radiation, enhancing anti-tumor activities in different animal tumor models. What’s more interesting is that the optimized anti-tumor activities have been observed to be greater when a PS-targeting antibody is part of a triple combination therapy that includes an anti-PD-1 antibody and another antibody.
The company is working together with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) on this initiative. MSK researchers led by Taha Merghoub, Ph.D. and Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D. have assessed the effects of combining anti-PD-1, PS-targeting, and radiation treatments in the mouse B16 melanoma model. Moreover, they have evaluated the effects of combining PS-targeting and radiation treatments on the immune activity level and type. Overall, they have seen evidences of improved immune activity.
Cancer Research Contribution
Combination treatments like these can potentially improve the outcomes among cancer patients.
“As cancer research continues to explore the potential of combination treatments that marry complementary mechanisms, we are pleased to see that our efforts continue to generate data supporting the role that PS-targeting agents such as bavituximab may play in this area,” commented Jeff Hutchins, Ph.D., Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Vice President (VP) of Preclinical Research.
With these encouraging results at hand, the pharmaceutical giant continues to build up its efforts to contribute to the growing global cancer research. These initiatives will significantly help ease millions of cancer patients around the world.
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals has closed at $0.40 on Friday, up by 23.94%.