NantKwest, Inc. (Nasdaq:NK) and Viracta Therapeutics, Inc.
announced the initial closing of a Series B Preferred financing
round of up to $18.4 million with NantKwest, Inc. (NASDAQ:NK) as
the lead investor. Joining NantKwest as a new investor in Viracta
is Wicklow Capital. Viracta’s founding investors, Latterell Venture
Partners and Forward Ventures also participated in the round.
NantKwest Chairman and CEO, Patrick Soon-Shiong,
M.D., will join Viracta’s Board of Directors as Vice Chairman.
Concurrent with the financing, Viracta agreed to the terms of an
exclusive license of its Phase 2 drug candidate, VRx-3996, to
NantKwest for use in combination with NantKwest’s platform of
natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
Viracta will use the proceeds of the Series B
financing to advance VRx-3996 into Phase 2 clinical studies for the
treatment of Epstein Barr Virus (EBV)-associated malignancies via
Viracta’s proprietary viral gene activation therapeutic
approach.
VRx-3996 is a Class 1 histone deacetylase inhibitor
(HDACi) Phase 2 drug candidate. In addition to use in Viracta’s
viral gene activation therapeutic approach, VRx-3996 holds
potential to enhance the activity and potential efficacy of
immunotherapeutic agents, such as NantKwest’s NK cell therapies,
and further enhance NantKwest’s position as an innovative and
market leading developer of next generation immunotherapies based
on the company’s proprietary NK cell therapy platform.
HDAC inhibitors have been show in in-vitro and
in-vivo studies to stimulate host immunity and improve clinical
benefit in cancer patients. The mechanism of action is believed to
result from the upregulation of expression of natural killer group
2D (NKG2D) ligands on tumor cells resulting in increased NK cell
activity and NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity.
NantKwest plans to transition VRx-3996 into human
clinical trials in combination with the company’s aNK, haNK and
taNK NK cell therapy platforms which the company believes will
synergistically enhance the efficacy of the company’s NK cell
therapy programs.
“We are pleased to enter this relationship with
NantKwest and to welcome Dr. Soon-Shiong to Viracta’s Board,” said
Viracta Chief Executive Officer, Ivor Royston, M.D. “Dr.
Soon-Shiong’s experience in advancing new cancer treatments adds
significant value to the Company and the patients we serve. The
financing provides support to advance Viracta’s viral gene
activation approach to treating patients with cancers associated
with EBV, which globally is a significant unmet medical need. The
relationship with NantKwest will allow us to explore potential
synergy between VRx-3996 and NantKwest’s NK cell therapy
platform.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Chairman and CEO of
NantKwest added, “Identifying new treatment options for patients
with therapeutic agents such as Viracta’s HDAC inhibitor, VRx-3996,
which can be used in combination with NantKwest’s aNK, haNK and
taNK natural killer cell therapies offer the promising opportunity
to stimulate the patient’s own immune system by increasing the
tumor cell killing ability of NK cell therapy and is highly
synergistic with our vision behind Cancer Breakthroughs 2020.” Dr.
Soon-Shiong continued, “This strategic relationship will enable us
to advance multiple combination therapies including VRx-3996 with
our NK cell platform that offers the potential to benefit cancer
patients across a broad range of cancer types.”
About Viracta
Viracta is a clinical-stage drug development
company committed to advancing new medicines based on its
proprietary viral gene activation therapy approach to benefit
patients with viral-associated cancers and other serious
diseases.
For press or investor inquiries regarding Viracta,
please call (858) 400-8470, or email info@viracta.com. For
additional information see www.viracta.com.
About NantKwest Inc.
NantKwest (Nasdaq:NK) is a pioneering, next
generation, clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on
harnessing the unique power of our immune system using natural
killer (NK) cells to treat cancer, infectious diseases and
inflammatory diseases. NK cells are the body’s first line of
defense due to the innate ability of NK cells to rapidly identify
and destroy cells under stress, such as cancer or virally-infected
cells.
NantKwest’s unique NK cell-based platform, with the
capacity to grow active killer cells as a biological cancer
therapy, has been designed to induce cell death against cancer or
infected cells by three different modes of action: (1) Direct
killing using activated NK cells (aNK) that release toxic granules
directly into the cell through cell to cell contact, (2)
Antibody-mediated killing using haNKs, which are NK cells
engineered to incorporate a high affinity receptor that binds to an
administered antibody, enhancing the cancer cell killing effect of
that antibody, and (3) Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) activated
killing using taNKs, which are NK cells engineered to incorporate
CARs to target tumor-specific antigens found on the surface of
cancer cells.
Our aNK, haNK® and taNK TM platform addresses
certain limitations of T cell therapies including the reduction of
risk of serious "cytokine storms" reported after T cell therapy. As
an “off-the-shelf” therapy, NantKwest's NK cells do not rely on a
patient’s own often compromised immune system. In Phase 1 clinical
trials in patients with late stage cancer, NantKwest's NK cells
have been successfully administered as an outpatient infusion
therapy without any reported severe side effects, even at doses of
10 billion cells.
By leveraging an integrated and extensive genomics
and transcriptomics discovery and development engine, together with
a pipeline of multiple, clinical-stage, immuno-oncology programs
that include a Phase 2 trial for a rare form of melanoma and the
planned initiation of a clinical trial of NK cells targeted to
breast cancer, we believe NantKwest is uniquely positioned to be
the premier immunotherapy company and transform medicine by
delivering living drugs in a bag and bringing novel NK cell-based
therapies to routine clinical care. For more
information please visit http://www.nantkwest.com and
follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter@
Dr.PatSoonShiong.
For more information regarding NantKwest, please
contact Jen Hodson, Public Relations Director at (562) 397-3639 or
jhodson@nantworks.com, or visit www.nantkwest.com.
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because of new information, future events or otherwise.
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