Inhibitex Announces Agreement With Avid Bioservices for the Manufacture of Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies.

Business & Health/Medical Writers

ATLANTA--(BW HealthWire)--March 19, 2002

Inhibitex, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a manufacturing and supply agreement with Avid Bioservices, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: PPHM).

The agreement calls for Avid to manufacture clinical trial material for Aurexis(TM), a humanized monoclonal antibody being developed by Inhibitex to prevent and treat life threatening Staphylococcal aureus (S. aureus) infections. Inhibitex anticipates filing an Investigational New Drug application (IND) for Aurexis in early 2003. In addition to Aurexis, Inhibitex also expects to file an IND for Veronate(TM) in the second quarter of this year. Veronate is a product being developed by Inhibitex to prevent both S. aureus and Coagulase Negative Staphylococcal infections in premature infants.

Avid Bioservices, Inc., of Tustin, California, provides a full range of GMP manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. The company's services include highly specialized cell culture, process and analytical development work, in addition to full-scale manufacturing, purification, bulk packaging, and regulatory support.

"We are very pleased to have finalized this relationship with Avid," stated Dr. William D. Johnston, Inhibitex's chief executive officer. He added, "Avid's experience and its ability to produce biologic materials that meet or exceed cGMP standards was a very important consideration for us. We are now well positioned to advance Aurexis into the clinic during the first half of 2003."

Inhibitex, Inc., located in Atlanta, Georgia, is a biopharmaceutical company developing and commercializing "first-in-field" antibody-based products for the treatment and prevention of staphylococcal and other bacterial and fungal infections. The company is developing a pipeline of these products based on its proprietary MSCRAMM(R) technology platform. This technology utilizes specific antibodies that inhibit the biologic activity of a family of surface proteins present on a number of pathogenic organisms. The company has several products in clinical and preclinical development based on this platform.