On October 6, 2020 Affimed N.V. (Nasdaq: AFMD), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company committed to giving patients back their innate ability to fight cancer, reported that the first patient was successfully dosed with allogeneic cord blood-derived natural killer (cbNK) cells preloaded with AFM13 and has moved on to the AFM13 monotherapy phase of the treatment cycle (Press release, Affimed, OCT 6, 2020, View Source [SID1234568154]). This therapy was developed through a research collaboration with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:

Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing

                  Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!

This is the first in human study to combine an NK cell product with an antibody whose primary mechanism is designed to specifically bind and activate NK cells and tumors cells in a bispecific fashion. This novel combination approach could lay the groundwork for future cellular therapy combinations with Affimed ICE constructs.

"Engaging the innate immune system is a novel and promising therapeutic approach in oncology and our ICE products are designed to tap into this, which, thus far, has largely remained untapped in this field," said Dr. Andreas Harstrick, Chief Medical Officer at Affimed. "Pre-loading innate immune cells with an ICE takes this idea a step further and potentially intensifies the treatment’s effect, especially in patients who have an impaired immune system or low NK cell numbers."

An NK cell armed with AFM13 is designed to direct NK cells to the tumor site in order to target cancer cells. Pursuant to the study design, after dosing with the preloaded NK cells, AFM13 is subsequently administered as monotherapy in order to maintain the activation of the infused cbNK cells and engage the patients’ own innate immune system (NK cells and macrophages), a distinct feature of Affimed’s ICE products.

Further Study Background
Although larger numbers of NK cells in patients is associated with better outcomes, the adoptive transfer of non-targeted NK cells has shown only limited clinical benefit. Target recognition of cancers by NK cells remains a substantial barrier to broad application of an NK cell therapy. In preclinical models, combining AFM13 with adoptive NK cell transfer has been shown to enhance the efficacy of NK cells. AFM13 exhibited a much longer binding to CD16A on NK cells as compared to CD30 binding monoclonal antibodies, both wildtype and ADCC enhanced, forming the basis to produce a stable AFM13 pre-loaded NK cell product. The study, which aims to enroll approximately 30 patients, is an investigator-initiated study at MD Anderson. The study is an open-label, non-randomized, single-center, dose escalation trial to evaluate the combination of AFM13 with cord blood-derived NK cells in adult patients with recurrent/refractory CD30-positive lymphomas. The primary objective of the study is to establish the safety and the recommended Phase 2 dose of AFM13-preloaded cbNK cells, followed by weekly treatment with intravenous AFM13. Secondary objectives include assessing the overall, complete and partial response rates. More details about the study can be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT04074746.

About AFM13
AFM13 is a first-in-class CD30/CD16A ROCK-derived bispecific innate cell engager (ICE) that induces specific and selective killing of CD30-positive tumor cells by engaging and activating natural killer (NK) cells and macrophages, thereby leveraging the power of the innate immune system. AFM13 is Affimed’s most advanced ICE clinical program, and it is currently being evaluated as a monotherapy in a registration-directed trial in patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (REDIRECT). The study is actively recruiting and can be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov using the identifier NCT04101331.