Affimed, NKMax America to Study EGFR-Targeted Innate Cell Engager with Natural Killer Cell Therapy

Affimed and NKMax America announced they entered into a clinical collaboration agreement to investigate the combination of AFM24, a CD16A/EGFR-targeted ICE®, with the autologous NK cell product SNK01. Pursuant to the collaboration, the companies plan to explore the combination in a first-in-human proof-of-concept (POC) trial in patients with EGFR-expressing tumors. The agreement follows a previous collaboration between the two companies in the preclinical setting to better understand the combined activity of their respective platforms. The results of the preclinical collaboration have shown substantive synergy between Affimed’s ICE® molecules and NKMax America’s autologous and cryopreserved allogeneic natural killer cell products.

Under the agreement, the companies will contribute their respective product candidates and resources towards submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and a subsequent clinical trial. The clinical trial will combine NKMax America’s SNK01 (enhanced natural killer cells) with AFM24 in the autologous setting with the option to expand the clinical trial to the allogeneic setting. The cost of the clinical study will be shared by Affimed and NKMax America. The agreement also provides for the opportunity to pursue further clinical study combinations with additional product candidates from both parties.

NKMax America has developed a proprietary NK cell expansion and activation technology platform which allows it to produce unprecedented commercial amounts of autologous and allogeneic NK cells from numerous donors that have near total expression of activating receptors like CD16A, NKG2D, NKp30 and NKp46. In addition, its unique technology increases the cytotoxicity of the expanded NK cells by nearly 8000 percent. In addition, the SNK01 product does not require lymphodepletion or cytokine support.

Using its ROCK® (Redirected Optimized Cell Killing) platform, Affimed has developed a novel pipeline of ICE® products. AFM24, a tetravalent, bispecific epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)- and CD16A-binding ICE®, is unique due to its activation of innate immunity to kill solid tumors, inducing both antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), whereas other EGFR-directed therapies rely heavily on signal transduction inhibition. A first-in-human Phase 1/2a open-label, non-randomized, multi-center, multiple ascending dose escalation/expansion study is underway evaluating AFM24 as monotherapy in patients with advanced solid EGFR-expressing malignancies whose disease has progressed after treatment with previous anticancer therapies.

“We believe combining ICE® molecules generated from our ROCK® platform with adoptive NK cell transfer can improve patient outcomes by ensuring patients have active and viable innate cells to be directed to the tumor and induce cytotoxic killing. In addition, through the high affinity binding to CD16A, our ICE® molecules can ensure delivery of potent innate cells even to those tumors with very low tumor antigen expression,” said Dr. Adi Hoess, Affimed’s Chief Executive Officer. “Studies have shown that higher numbers of NK cells are associated with improved patient responses. By combining AFM24 with the autologous NK cell product from NKMax America, we intend to provide clinically meaningful benefit to more patients suffering from EGFR-expressing solid tumors where mortality rates remain high.”

“By combining our two innovative technologies, we have the potential to rapidly develop an entirely new class of therapeutics, Chimeric Antigen-Like engaged NK cells, to better benefit patients without the need for lymphodepletion,” said Paul Song, M.D., Vice Chairman and Chief Medical Officer, NKMax America. “We believe this approach offers a better alternative to the current process of manufacturing genetically engineered cell therapies such as CAR-T and CAR-NK products, which are expensive and inefficient."