Initially Launching a Novel, High-Affinity BCMA CAR Targeting NK Cell De­vel­op­ment Candidate for Multiple Myeloma, with an Option for up to Five Additional CAR Targeting Sequences

{{image}}San Diego, CA (Press Release) – NantKwest, Inc. (Nasdaq:NK), a leading clin­i­cal-stage Natural Killer (NK) cell based thera­peutics com­pany, and ProMab Biotech­nol­ogies to­day an­nounced the estab­lish­ment of a world­wide license to a B-Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA) targeted anti­body sequence for mul­ti­ple myeloma along with an op­tion for up to five undisclosed targeting sequences for ex­clu­sive use in the devel­op­ment of chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor (CAR) based NK cell ther­a­pies.

“We are pleased to an­nounce this col­lab­o­ration with ProMab Biotech­nol­ogies, marking another mile­stone for NantKwest in the devel­op­ment of targeted, next gen­er­a­tion, NK cell thera­peutics against mul­ti­ple myeloma and other cancers,” said Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, CEO of NantKwest. “With an esti­mated five-year sur­vival rate of around 49% and accounting for 10% of all hema­to­logical malig­nan­cies, patients with mul­ti­ple myeloma are in critical need for more ef­fec­tive treat­ment op­tions. We be­lieve, NantKwest’s CAR-based NK cell ther­apy may rep­re­sent a much needed new treat­ment op­tion for these patients. We eagerly antic­i­pate growing our rela­tion­ship with ProMab and ac­cel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of these new and inno­va­tive, next-gener­a­tion off-the shelf, CAR-based NK cell ther­a­pies.”

“ProMab’s stra­te­gic focus is on the devel­op­ment of mono­clonal anti­bodies and their appli­ca­tion in cell ther­apy through the integration of next gen­er­a­tion sequencing, bio­in­for­matics, high-through­put screen­ing tech­nolo­gies, and novel in vitro in vivo val­i­da­tion tools. This new part­ner­ship allows NantKwest to leverage the breadth of our mono­clonal anti­body gen­er­a­tion and val­i­da­tion plat­form, our human anti­body library screen­ing capabilities, to­geth­er with NantKwest’s strong NK cell engi­neer­ing, manu­fac­tur­ing, and clin­i­cal ex­per­tise,” said John Wu, Pres­i­dent and CEO of ProMab Biotech­nol­ogies. “We look for­ward to work­ing to­geth­er with the NantKwest team to more rapidly bring new NK cell thera­peutics into the clinic.”

Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a debilitating blood cancer that while treatable is usually con­sidered incurable, re­sult­ing in over 100,000 deaths annually on a world­wide basis. Representing a sig­nif­i­cant unmet med­i­cal need, without treat­ment, sur­vival is typ­i­cally less than one year. Even with treat­ment, which typ­i­cally in­volves the use of chemo­ther­apy, steroids, targeted ther­apy, and in some cases, stem cell trans­plant, sur­vival often can only be extended to 4 to 5 years. The BCMA pro­tein is im­por­tant in B cell devel­op­ment and preferentially ex­pressed in mature B lym­pho­cytes. BCMA pro­tein is also be­lieved to be in­volved in the devel­op­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma and other blood cancers and is an im­por­tant target for drug devel­op­ment.

About NantKwest Inc.

NantKwest, a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of com­pa­nies, is an inno­va­tive clin­i­cal-stage immuno­therapy com­pany focused on har­nessing the power of the innate immune sys­tem by using the natural killer cell to treat cancer and virally induced infectious dis­eases.

NantKwest is uniquely positioned to implement pre­ci­sion cancer med­i­cine, with the poten­tial to change the current paradigm of cancer care. Natural Killer (NK) cells are a safeguard in the human body de­signed to recog­nize and detect cells under stress due to cancer or viral in­fec­tion. NantKwest’s “off-the-shelf” activated NK cell plat­form is de­signed to destroy cancer and virally infected cells from the body. The safety of our NK cells as well as their ac­­tiv­ity against a broad range of cancers has 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. In addi­tion to being a universal cell-based ther­apy that does not re­quire in­di­vid­ualized patient sourcing or matching, our NK cell prod­ucts have been largely admin­istered in the outpatient setting as an “off-the-shelf” living drug.

With the capacity to grow active killer cells as a living cancer ther­apy, our NK cells have been de­signed to induce cell death against cancers and virally infected cells by several mech­a­nisms, in­­clud­ing: innate kill­ing, whereby all of our NK plat­forms recog­nize the stress pro­teins typ­i­cally found on cancer cells, which, upon binding, release toxic granules to im­medi­ately kill their targets; anti­body-mediated kill­ing with our haNK® plat­form, which are NK cells engi­neered to express anti­body re­cep­tors that can bind to thera­peutic anti­body prod­ucts, thereby enhancing the cancer cell kill­ing effect of that anti­body. All three modes of kill­ing (innate, anti­body-mediated, and CAR directed kill­ing) are employed by our t-haNK™ plat­form, which is an inno­va­tive com­bi­na­tion of our aNK, haNK® and taNK® plat­forms in a single prod­uct.

Our haNK®, and t-haNK™ plat­forms have been de­signed to address cer­tain lim­i­ta­tions of CAR T-cell ther­apy in­­clud­ing the ca­pa­bil­i­ty to in­fuse cell ther­apy in an outpatient setting which allows for poten­tial re­duc­tion of risk for serious cytokine storms and protracted serious adverse events. In Phase I and II clin­i­cal trials in patients with late stage cancer, our NK cells have been admin­istered as an inves­ti­ga­tional outpatient in­fusion safely with greater than 300 in­fusions to date at a dose of 2 billion cells per in­fusion.

By leveraging an integrated and extensive genomics and transcriptomics discovery and devel­op­ment engine, to­geth­er with a pipe­line of mul­ti­ple, clin­i­cal-stage, immuno-oncology pro­grams, 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.

NK-92, aNK, haNK, taNK, and t-haNK are trademarks of NantKwest, Inc.

For addi­tional in­for­ma­tion, please visit www.nantkwest.com.

About ProMab Biotech­nol­ogies

ProMab Biotech­nol­ogies is a bio­technology com­pany located in Richmond California, that focuses to de­vel­op and com­mer­cial­ize mouse, rabbit, human mono­clonal anti­bodies as well as chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor-T Cell (CAR-T) prod­ucts. ProMab’s CAR-T plat­form covers both hema­to­logical and solid cancers with intensive in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical val­i­da­tion de­signed for safer and better treat­ment. As a CRO in the immunology field for 18 years, ProMab offers standard laboratory pro­ce­dures and animal studies for the anti­body discovery through the integration of the newest techniques in anti­body library con­struc­tion, next gen­er­a­tion sequencing, unique humanization modeling, high-through­put screen­ing, and artificial intelligence analysis sys­tems. ProMab aims to out-license anti­bodies val­i­dated in CAR-T ther­apy or bring the CAR-T tech­nolo­gies to the early stage mar­ket of clin­i­cal study. ProMab has part­nered with top bio­technology startups, med­i­cal in­sti­tu­tions, and pharma­ceu­ticals to ad­vance the devel­op­ment of cell ther­a­pies as well as bispecific anti­bodies across mul­ti­ple cancers. For more in­for­ma­tion, visit www.promab.com.

Forward-Looking State­ments

This press release con­tains for­ward-looking state­ments within the meaning of the Private Se­cu­ri­ties Lit­i­ga­tion Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking state­ments in­clude state­ments con­cern­ing or im­plying the Com­pany will be suc­cess­ful in im­prov­ing the treat­ment of cancer. Risks and un­cer­tain­ties related to this endeavor in­clude, but are not limited to, obtaining FDA ap­prov­al of our NK cells as well as other thera­peutics as part of the NANT Cancer Vaccine plat­form as a cancer treat­ment.

Forward-looking state­ments are based on man­agement's current ex­pec­ta­tions and are subject to var­i­ous risks and un­cer­tain­ties that could cause actual results to differ ma­teri­ally and adversely from those ex­pressed or im­plied by such for­ward-looking state­ments. Accordingly, these for­ward-looking state­ments do not con­sti­tute guar­an­tees of future per­for­mance, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these for­ward-looking state­ments.

These and other risks re­gard­ing our business are described in detail in our Se­cu­ri­ties and Ex­change Com­mis­sion filings, in­­clud­ing in our Quar­ter­ly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sep­tem­ber 30, 2018. These for­ward-looking state­ments speak only as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any obli­ga­tion to up­date these state­ments except as may be re­quired by law.

Source: NantKwest.