Affimed Presents Poster at AACR Highlighting Progress Toward Novel EGFR-targeting Therapy
April 16 2018 - 2:01PM
Heidelberg, Germany, April 16, 2018 - Affimed
N.V. (Nasdaq: AFMD), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer
immunotherapies, today presented a poster entitled
"Pharmacokinetics and in vitro/in vivo characterization of
high-affinity bispecific EGFR/CD16A NK cell engagers for the
treatment of EGFR-expressing tumors" in the "Therapeutic
Antibodies, Including Engineered Antibodies 2" session at the
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2018 Annual Meeting
in Chicago.
Despite several marketed agents such as
cetuximab and tyrosine kinase inhibitors, there is a significant
medical need for a novel approach to treat EGFR+ tumors by widening
the therapeutic window and addressing current treatment resistance.
To meet the need of reducing or avoiding side effects stemming from
inhibition of EGFR signal transduction of healthy cells, such as
skin toxicity, Affimed selected a novel EGFR-binding domain with
differentiating features from cetuximab and applied its unique, NK
cell engager platform to generate product candidates with high
potency and efficacy. Two development candidates, AFM24_I and
AFM24_T, were selected, both targeting CD16A on NK cells and EGFR
on tumor cells. Through this binding modality and the resulting
immune effector cell activation, both molecules are differentiated
from cetuximab by their immunotherapeutic mechanism of action.
While AFM24_T reflects the traditional TandAb profile, AFM24_I is
designed to emulate an IgG-like half-life allowing for more
convenient dosing.
"Our NK cell platform enables us to generate
molecules against validated oncology targets, while addressing
limitations of existing standard treatments," said Dr. Martin
Treder, Affimed's Chief Scientific Officer. "We look forward to
advancing our AFM24 program into the clinic, especially given the
demonstrated synergies of our NK cell engagers with other immune
activating agents, which could be truly beneficial in the treatment
of solid tumors."
AFM24 (_I and _T) possesses high affinity,
binding to both EGFR-expressing tumor cells and human NK cells even
in the presence of physiological levels of immunoglobulins (IgGs),
which compete for NK cell activation with standard monoclonal
antibodies (mAbs). Notably, while showing less inhibition of EGFR
signaling compared to cetuximab, both molecules demonstrated
superior cytotoxicity of target cells irrespective of their Ras
mutational status. Mutated Ras is a negative predictive biomarker
for marketed EGFR-targeting mAbs, and patients bearing this
mutation are not eligible for treatment with these antibodies. When
investigated in a cynomolgus pilot toxicology study, AFM24_T showed
a favorable safety profile without skin toxicity.
AFM24_I, based on Affimed's novel modular NK
cell platform, demonstrated its unique pharmacokinetic profile
similar to that of mAbs and also elicited dose-dependent tumor
growth inhibition in a humanized animal model. IND-enabling studies
are ongoing and both candidates are being explored in combination
with immune activating agents, based on encouraging data for
Affimed's lead NK cell engager AFM13 indicating clinical synergy
with the anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab.
About Affimed N.V.Affimed (Nasdaq: AFMD) engineers
targeted immunotherapies, seeking to cure patients by harnessing
the power of innate and adaptive immunity (NK and T cells). We are
developing single and combination therapies to treat cancers and
other life-threatening diseases. For more information, please visit
www.affimed.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis press
release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other
than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements,
which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe,"
"could," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to",
"may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will,"
"would" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements appear
in a number of places throughout this release and include
statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook,
analyses and current expectations concerning, among other things,
our ongoing and planned preclinical development and clinical
trials, our collaborations and development of our products in
combination with other therapies, the timing of and our ability to
make regulatory filings and obtain and maintain regulatory
approvals for our product candidates our intellectual property
position, our collaboration activities, our ability to develop
commercial functions, expectations regarding clinical trial data,
our results of operations, cash needs, financial condition,
liquidity, prospects, future transactions, growth and strategies,
the industry in which we operate, the trends that may affect the
industry or us and the risks uncertainties and other factors
described under the heading "Risk Factors" in Affimed's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Given these risks,
uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, and we assume no
obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new
information becomes available in the future.
Contact:Anca Alexandru, Head of
Communications, EU IRPhone: +49 6221 64793341E-Mail:
a.alexandru@affimed.com, IR@affimed.com
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