On January 5, 2018 Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPHM) (NASDAQ:PPHMP), a company working to improve patient lives by providing high quality biologics manufacturing services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, reported that it is changing its name to Avid Bioservices, Inc. as part of its transition to a dedicated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) (Press release, Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, MAY 5, 2018, View Source [SID1234522974]). In addition to the name change, the company is also adopting the new NASDAQ ticker symbol "CDMO" (NASDAQ:CDMO). The name and ticker symbol changes will both be effective as of market open on Monday, January 8, 2018.

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"As our organization transitions to a pure play CDMO, we believe it is appropriate to take advantage of the brand recognition that has been built within this highly specialized marketplace and to change the company’s name and conduct all future operations as Avid Bioservices," said Roger Lias, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer. "Over the past 15 years, Avid has established a reputation for CDMO excellence built on biologics manufacturing expertise and a track record of consistently meeting and exceeding the needs of its clients. This level of quality is highlighted by Avid’s receipt of multiple 2017 Contract Manufacturing Leadership Awards for Quality, Reliability, Capabilities, Expertise and Compatibility. We look forward to continuing to build the Avid brand as we work to grow and diversify our CDMO business by providing our clients with the most sophisticated and highest-quality development and manufacturing services."

Effective at market open on Monday, January 8, 2018, trading for Avid Bioservices will begin under the symbol "CDMO" (NASDAQ:CDMO). At the same time, the company’s preferred stock will begin trading under the symbol "CDMOP" (NASDAQ:CDMOP). The company’s common stock and preferred stock will continue to trade under the ticker symbols "PPHM" and "PPHMP", respectively, until market close on Friday, January 5, 2018. The corporate name change to Avid Bioservices does not affect the rights of the company’s stockholders and no action is required by stockholders with respect to the name change. The company’s common stock has been assigned a new CUSIP number of 05368M 106 and the company’s preferred stock has been assigned a new CUSIP number of 05368M 205 in connection with the name change. Outstanding stock certificates are not affected by the name change and will not need to be exchanged.

On January 5, 2018 AgeX Therapeutics, Inc., a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE American: BTX), reported that it will present at Biotech Showcase, January 8-10, 2018 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square (Press release, BioTime, JAN 5, 2018, View Source;p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2325217 [SID1234522928]).

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Michael D. West, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, will present at the conference as follows:

Date: Tuesday, January 9
Time: 2:30 PM PST
Track: Yosemite-B (Ballroom Level)
Venue: Hilton San Francisco Union Square, 333 O’Farrell Street

According to the event organizers, Biotech Showcase features more than 3,500 decision makers from 2,100 life sciences companies in a variety of plenary sessions, fireside chats, and panels. This year’s event is expected to draw over 900 investors from 50-plus countries, in anticipation of 400-plus public and private company presentations.

A copy of Dr. West’s presentation will be available on the AgeX website.

On January 5, 2018 NantWorks, the parent organization of NantHealth (NASDAQ: NH) and NantKwest (NASDAQ: NK) reported that Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (Chairman, CEO, and Founder) will present the current status of these companies and the overall ecosystem of NantWorks (Press release, NantKwest, JAN 5, 2018, http://ir.nantkwest.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=254059&p=RssLanding&cat=news&id=2325231 [SID1234522931]). Specific details will be presented regarding the current status of GPS CancerTM, including FDA filings and seminal patents issued covering tumor-normal analysis of DNA.

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In addition, details will be presented regarding the record 25 letters of authorization covering 12 novel biological molecules tested across 20 tumor types within the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, of which 15 letters of authorization were received in 2017 for natural killer cells in combination with adenovirus, yeast, super agonist IL-15 and checkpoint inhibitors. The preliminary results of the first in human and safety studies of the NANT Cancer Vaccine will be released.

Presentation Time:

Time: January 9, 2018 at 5:00pm Pacific Time.
Location: 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference – Elizabethan A/B Breakout: Sussex Room
Both the presentation and question and answer session that follows at 5:00pm will be webcast live at the below links and available for replay at both NantHealth and NantKwest.

NantWorks Presents at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
NantWorksQ & A Session at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference

On January 5, 2018 Potenza Therapeutics reported insights into its portfolio of immuno-oncology therapies that turn on or off the signaling mechanisms that control a patients‘ own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer (Press release, Potenza Therapeutics, JAN 5, 2018, View Source [SID1234523024]). The lead program in Potenza’s portfolio is its next-generation checkpoint inhibitor, a novel TIGIT antagonist PTZ-201 (ASP8374) which is being developed in partnership with Astellas Pharma Inc. and its affiliates ("Astellas"). In addition, Potenza and Astellas are jointly working on two additional preclinical molecules expected to complete IND-enabling studies in 2018: PTZ-329, which targets a novel immune regulatory pathway; and PTZ-522, a novel approach to a well-validated but as-yet ineffectively addressed immune activating pathway.

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"The team has made substantial scientific discovery and pre-clinical development progress since we launched Potenza in 2014 and established our R&D Collaboration with Astellas in April 2015," said Dan Hicklin, PhD, co-founder of Potenza and the company’s Chief Executive Officer. "The current portfolio was carefully chosen and includes potential therapies that will be studied for use alone, in combination with standard of care, and in unique combination regimens with each other. The three programs that Potenza is pursuing may have the potential to provide benefit for patients in indications for whom there are currently no effective treatments."

The Phase 1 clinical trial for PTZ-201 (ASP8374) is a dose escalation and expansion safety study in patients with advanced solid tumors with plans to expand into efficacy expansion cohorts in responding tumor types, and is sponsored by Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc. The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate the tolerability and safety profile of ASP8374 in patients with locally advanced (unresectable) or metastatic solid tumors and to characterize the pharmacokinetic profile of ASP8374 and to determine the recommended Phase 2 dose (RP2D) of ASP8374. The secondary purpose of this study is to evaluate whether ASP8374 has an anti-tumor effect as monotherapy and ultimately in combination with a PD1 inhibitor. Details can be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov.

On January 5, 2018 Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) reported that it will announce its fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 financial results on Wednesday, January 31, 2018 (Press release, Eli Lilly, JAN 5, 2018, View Source [SID1234522923]). Lilly will also conduct a conference call on that day with the investment community and media to further detail the company’s financial performance.

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The conference call will begin at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Investors, media and the general public can access a live webcast of the conference call through a link that will be posted on Lilly’s website at View Source A replay will also be available on the website following the conference call.