Artiva Biotherapeutics and Affimed Announce Platform-to-Platform R&D Collaboration for Targeted Off-the-Shelf NK Cell Therapi...
November 05 2020 - 4:01PM
- Exclusive collaboration to assess feasibility and activity of
pre-manufactured, co-vialed, cryopreserved, off-the-shelf NK cell
combination therapeutics targeting EGFR and additional targets
- Proof of concept, preclinical assessment to establish activity
and feasibility of the combination of Artiva’s allogeneic natural
killer (NK) cells and Affimed’s innate cell engagers (ICE®)
San Diego and Heidelberg, Germany, November 5,
2020 -- Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., and Affimed N.V.
(NASDAQ: AFMD), both immuno-oncology companies focused on
developing and commercializing therapies utilizing the innate
immune system, announced today that they have entered into an
exclusive collaboration agreement to assess combining elements of
their respective platforms in the generation of targeted,
off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell therapies.
The R&D collaboration will assess the feasibility and
preclinical activity of combinations of Artiva’s allogeneic NK cell
product AB-101 and Affimed’s ICE® molecules, building on earlier
preclinical studies demonstrating synergistic cytotoxic activity.
Under the agreement, Affimed’s ICE® molecules targeting EGFR and
other undisclosed targets will be combined with Artiva’s GMP-grade
allogeneic NK cells during the cell manufacturing process. The
pre-manufacturing process will include the loading of AB-101 with
Affimed ICE® molecules prior to cryopreservation, creating
specifically targeted allogeneic cells without the requirement for
viral transduction. The resulting cryopreserved, off-the-shelf,
targeted allogeneic NK cell products will be assessed for
anti-tumor activity and development potential. The costs of
manufacturing and preclinical assessments will be shared by both
companies. The agreement provides for potential further development
of selected combination products.
“The combination of Artiva’s highly scaled, optimized NK-cell
manufacturing platform with Affimed’s tumor-targeting ICE®
molecules has the potential for an efficient and flexible
therapeutic combination product platform, and preclinical
assessments have already demonstrated the potential of this
approach,” said Tom Farrell, President and CEO of Artiva. “Our NK
cells are activated during the manufacturing process resulting in
high and consistent expression of innate tumor engagement
receptors, including CD16A, making them the ideal platform to
combine with tumor-specific targeting ICE® from Affimed’s
platform.”
“The collaboration with Artiva represents a visionary approach
which can lead to a new class of drugs providing a potent and
targeted innate immune system-cytotoxic response,” said Dr. Adi
Hoess, Affimed’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our ROCK® platform has
been proven to rapidly and predictably generate a set
of diverse innate cell engagers, with consistent profiles in
tumor lysis and safety making our ICE® molecules optimally suited
for combination therapy with NK cells.”
Using its ROCK® (Redirected Optimized Cell Killing) platform,
Affimed has developed a novel pipeline of ICE® products;
tetravalent, bispecific therapeutics specific for tumor targets
such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and CD30 and
maintaining high affinity CD16A-binding for enhanced activation of
innate immunity, inducing both antibody-dependent cellular
cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis
(ADCP).
Artiva’s AB-101 is a universal NK cell therapy for use in
combination with monoclonal antibodies or novel modalities such as
NK cell engagers. In preclinical studies, AB-101 has demonstrated
enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity with a variety of
therapeutic antibodies. The company plans to enter the clinic this
year with AB-101, assessing monotherapy safety and efficacy and
subsequent therapeutic potential in combination with an anti-CD20
monoclonal antibody for the treatment of relapsed refractory B-cell
lymphoma. The first batches of AB-101 drug product, manufactured at
very large scale and cryopreserved in infusion-ready media, have
already been produced for clinical use.
About Artiva Biotherapeutics: Scaling NK Cell Therapy
for Cancer
Artiva’s mission is to deliver to cancer patients highly
effective cellular immunotherapies that are also safe and
immediately accessible. Artiva’s pipeline of universal and targeted
NK cell therapies leverages the innate anti-tumor biology and
safety features of NK cells. The therapies are optimized for
enhanced efficacy through chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or
therapeutic antibody combination therapy. Artiva’s pipeline
leverages a manufacturing platform that supports large-scale
production and cryopreservation of off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell
therapies and proprietary CAR-NK technologies to augment
therapeutic activity. Artiva’s platform incorporates cell
expansion, activation, and engineering technology developed by the
company’s corporate partner, GC LabCell, a member of the GC family
of companies, one of the Republic of Korea’s leading
biopharmaceutical groups. Artiva is headquartered in San Diego. For
more info, please visit www.artivabio.com.
About Affimed N.V.
Affimed (Nasdaq: AFMD) is a clinical-stage
immuno-oncology company committed to giving patients back their
innate ability to fight cancer. Affimed’s fit-for-purpose ROCK®
platform allows innate cell engagers to be designed for specific
patient populations. The company is developing single and
combination therapies to treat hematologic and solid tumors. The
company is currently enrolling patients into a
registration-directed study of AFM13 for CD30-positive
relapsed/refractory peripheral T cell lymphoma and into a Phase
1/2a dose escalation/expansion study of AFM24 for the treatment of
advanced EGFR-expressing solid tumors. For more information, please
visit www.affimed.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This 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 intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook,
analyses and current expectations concerning, among other things,
the potential of Affimed’s ROCK® platform, ICE® product candidates
and AFM24, the potential of Artiva’s NK cell, CAR-NK cell, and
AB-101 products, the potential benefits of combining Affimed’s ICE
product candidates with Artiva’s NK cell technology, and
preclinical development and clinical trials, 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 neither company
assumes any obligation to update these forward-looking statements,
even if new information becomes available in the future.
Artiva Media Contact
Jessica Yingling, Ph.D.
Little Dog Communications
E-Mail: jessica@litldog.com
Tel.: +1 (858) 344-8091
Affimed Investor Contact
Alexander Fudukidis
Head of Investor Relations
E-Mail: a.fudukidis@affimed.com
Tel.: +1 (917) 436-8102
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