StemCell Therapy

DetailsCategory: DNA RNA and CellsPublished on Monday, 16 December 2019 19:43Hits: 277

CULVER CITY, CA, USA I December 16, 2019 I NantKwest Inc. (Nasdaq: NK), a clinical-stage natural killer cell-based therapeutics company, and ImmunityBio, a privately held immunotherapy company, today announced results from their Phase 1b trial investigating a novel, first-in-human immunotherapy protocol consisting of NantKwests off-the-shelf, antibody-targeted NK cells (haNK) combined with ImmunityBios IL-15 superagonist (N-803), low-dose metronomic chemoradiation therapy, adenoviral and yeast tumor-associated antigen vaccines (MUC1, brachyury, CEA) and a PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor in patients with metastatic triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) who had relapsed after prior therapy.

The results were presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) on December 13, 2019, in San Antonio, Texas, in a poster titled Safety and efficacy from first-in-human immunotherapy combining NK and T-cell activation with off-the-shelf, antibody-targeted CD16 NK cell line (haNK) in patients with 2nd-line or greater metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

This landmark study is the worlds first trial to combine cellular therapy with checkpoint inhibitors and IL-15 cytokine stimulation, as well as with adenoviral vectors, all acting in concert to induce immune simulation of both NK cells and T cells.

We are extremely pleased that the FDA granted us IND authorization to initiate this novel immunotherapy trial enabling the safety and efficacy study of multiple novel biological agents administered as a single protocol in the outpatient setting, said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO of NantKwest. This important trial forms the basis of our approach to induce immunogenic cell death and long-term memory, and avoid the ravages of high dose chemotherapy.

Achieving durable, complete responses in metastatic TNBC patients that have failed all current standards of care is a promising finding and further validates our approach to orchestrate both the innate and adaptive immune system, continued Soon-Shiong. TNBC is a highly aggressive cancer, with limited treatment options and poor prognosis. These results are important proof-of-concept supporting our hypothesis that comprehensively activating the immune responses of the NK, T and Dendritic cells would induce immunogenic cell death leading to durable responses, even among this challenging patient population. We are thrilled with the safety and efficacy data from this first-in-human clinical trial of combination NK cell therapy, cytokine fusion protein, chemoradiation and checkpoint inhibitor, and look forward to advancing this exciting off-the-shelf cell therapy approach to randomized clinical trials in this setting.

Data Highlights Include:

The approximately 10-20% of breast cancer patients who are triple negative are faced with a grim prognosis with limited treatment options. These results are clinically significant, with overall response rates and complete response rates in this highly refractory, advanced metastatic patient population, said Dr. Chaitali Nangia, a Hematologist/Oncologist with the Chan Soon-Shiong Immuno-Oncology Network and study co-author. Importantly, these responses to treatment are also durable, with median progression free survival exceeding 13 months compared to historical controls of approximately 3 months in this heavily pretreated population. We also observed a positive safety and tolerability profile, with no cytokine release syndrome. Taken together, these efficacy and safety results point to the emergence of a new treatment paradigm for TNBC.

About NantKwest

NantKwest (NASDAQ: NK) is an innovative, clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on harnessing the power of the innate immune system to treat cancer and virally induced infectious diseases. We are the leading producer of clinical dose forms of off-the-shelf Natural Killer (NK) cell therapies. Our activated NK cell platform is designed to destroy cancer and virally infected cells from the body. The safety of our optimized, activated NK cells, as well as their activity against a broad range of cancers, have been tested in phase I clinical trials in Canada and Europe, as well as in multiple phase I and II clinical trials in the United States. By leveraging an integrated and extensive genomics and transcriptomics discovery and development engine, together with a pipeline of multiple, clinical-stage, immuno-oncology programs, NantKwests goal is to transform medicine by delivering living drugs in a bag and bringing novel NK cell-based therapies to routine clinical care. NantKwest is a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of companies. For more information, please visit https://nantkwest.com.

haNK is a registered trademark of NantKwest, Inc.

About ImmunityBio

ImmunityBio is a privately held immunotherapy company with a broad portfolio of biological molecules, including an albumin-linked chemotherapeutic, peptides, fusion proteins, cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, adenovirus, and yeast vaccine therapies.

ImmunityBios oncological goals are two-fold: To employ the companys broad portfolio of biological molecules to activate endogenous NK and CD8+ T cells, and to develop a T cell memory cancer vaccine to combat multiple tumor types without the use of high-dose chemotherapy.

The companys platform of technologies has enabled it to achieve one of the most comprehensive, late-stage clinical pipelines, addressing both the innate (activated macrophage and natural killer cell) and the adaptive immune system (dendritic, CD4 and CD8 killer T cells). In 2020, ImmunityBio is planning to enroll patients in late-stage trials with molecules across multiple indications including triple negative breast cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma and glioblastoma.

In the field of infectious disease, ImmunityBios goal is to develop vaccine therapies for the prevention and treatment of Influenza, Zika, Ebola, and HIV. For more information, please visit our website at https://www.immunitybio.com/.

SOURCE: NantKwest

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NantKwest and ImmunityBio Present Results of Landmark Trial of First-in-Human Natural Killer Cell Combination Immunotherapy With Durable, Complete...

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