NantKwest Announces Durable Complete Responses in Phase I Trial of aNK Cell Therapy in Patients with Relapsed Hematolo...
July 31 2017 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
42% Of Patents Exhibited A Response, With
Two Complete Responses In A Phase 1 Study Of 12 Patients With A
Patient In Complete Remission 10 Years After Failing Transplant
Therapy For Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, And A Second Patient In Complete
Remission 2 Years After Failing Transplant Therapy In Multiply
Myeloma
NantKwest Inc. (Nasdaq:NK), a pioneering, next-generation,
clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on harnessing the
unique power of the immune system using natural killer (NK) cells
to treat cancer, infectious diseases, and inflammatory diseases,
today announced the final results of a phase I clinical
trial of the company’s aNK cell
therapy platform in relapsed hematological
malignancies.
The data published in
the journal Oncotarget by investigators at
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto,
Canada, demonstrated continuing evidence of safety and
efficacy, with an overall response rate of 42% and no evidence of
grade 3 or 4 adverse events from the infusions. Of note 2 out of
the 12 patients in the safety study with relapsed Hodgkin's
Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma, demonstrated durable complete
response with single agent aNK therapy, and remain free of disease
to date, 10 years and 2 years respectively.
“Our study was designed to assess safety and preliminary
evidence of efficacy in patients with relapsed, refractory
hematological malignancies whose disease recurred
after autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation
(AHCT). In this heavily pretreated patient population
that has a particularly poor prognosis, we demonstrated
safety with minimal toxicity and showed preliminary
evidence of efficacy, taking advantage of the unique
properties of natural killer (NK) cells as an
immunotherapeutic agent,” said Armand Keating, MD,
FRCP(C), Director, Cell Therapy Program, Princess
Margaret Cancer Centre and University Health Network.
Dr. Keating continued, “In this clinical study completed in 2015
of 12 patients with lymphoma and multiple myeloma who had relapsed
after AHCT for refractory/relapsed disease, we report encouraging
results with four patients (33%) currently alive and two complete
responses, one for over two years and the second for over 10 years
and conclude that aNK cell therapy warrants further clinical
investigation.”
Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO of
NantKwest commented, “Consistent with previous
studies, Dr. Keating’s clinical trial results, reporting
a 42% overall response rate, provide additional clinical validation
of the unique potential to deliver long-term
remissions with limited toxicity using the company’s
novel NK cell therapy. Our aNK cell therapy
is currently in an ongoing Phase II clinical study in
Merkel cell carcinoma and represent a
critical, foundational component in the company’s recently
launched NANT Cancer Vaccine clinical trial program.”
Dr. Soon-Shiong continued, “We believe our product
portfolio of novel off-the-shelf NK cell
therapies is unique in offering a more uniform,
consistent and optimized product potency with
minimal toxicity and we remain focused
on translating these unique advantages to patient care as
rapidly as possible.”
aNK Cell Therapy Platform
NantKwest’s aNK cell therapy platform is being developed
as an allogeneic, off-the-shelf therapy, offering a
potent, standardized, uniform and consistent product, further
optimized to enhance the key capability of natural killer cells to
directly target and kill cancer cells. This novel cell therapy
is currently in an ongoing Phase II clinical trial
in Merkel cell carcinoma and is a critical,
foundational component in the company’s recently launch NANT
Cancer Vaccine clinical trial program.
About NANT Cancer Vaccine
The NANT Cancer Vaccine is the first combination immunotherapy
protocol to orchestrate the delivery of metronomic low dose
radiation and chemotherapy with molecularly informed tumor
associated antigen vaccines and natural killer cells, to activate
the innate and adaptive immune system and to induce immunogenic
cell death. By inducing immunogenic cell death and protecting
as well as enhancing the innate and adaptive immune system, the
NANT Cancer Vaccine seeks to attain long-term sustainable remission
of multiple tumor types with lower toxicity and higher efficacy
than current standards of care.
About NantKwest
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)
Targeted activated killing using taNKs, which are NK cells
engineered to incorporate chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to
target tumor-specific antigens found on the surface of cancer
cells.
Our aNK, haNK and taNK 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 www.nantkwest.com.
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NantKwest Inc.Jen Hodsonjhodson@nantworks.com
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