On December 19, 2014 Sorrento Therapeutics and Conkwest, Inc., a privately-held immuno-oncology company developing proprietary Neukoplast (NK-92), a Natural Killer (NK) cell-line based therapy, reported that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement to jointly develop next generation CAR-TNK (pronounced as "Car-Tank") immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer (Press release, Sorrento Therapeutics, DEC 19, 2014, View Source [SID:1234504358]). The CAR-TNK technology platform combines Conkwest’s proprietary Neukoplast cell line with Sorrento’s proprietary G-MAB fully human antibody technology and CAR designs to further enhance the potency and targeting of Neukoplast. Under the terms of the agreement, Sorrento and Conkwest will establish an exclusive global strategic collaboration focused on accelerating the development of CAR-TNKs for the treatment of hematological malignancies as well as solid tumors. Both companies will jointly own and share development costs and revenues from any developed CAR-TNK products. As part of the transaction, Sorrento will make a $9 million strategic equity investment in Conkwest and provide $2 million in research credit payments towards the development of novel CAR-TNK cell lines.

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Adoptive immunotherapy is widely regarded as one of the most impactful and innovative anti-cancer therapy breakthroughs. To date, T-cell based therapies, like CAR-T, have shown the most promise in select hematologic cancers, especially B-cell malignancies such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). They have also demonstrated outstanding therapeutic impact, including a high percentage of complete responses (CRs) in leukemia patients using CD19-CAR-T cells. While the clinical results seen have been promising, CAR-T therapies have been associated with some concerning side effects, especially potentially fatal cytokine-release syndrome that is mediated by interleukin-6 (IL-6) released from the T-cells and characterized by high fevers and sudden drops in blood pressure. Afflicted patients often require aggressive support in an intensive care unit setting. Additionally, most current CAR-T approaches rely upon patient derived T-cells, which require individualized processing, and are thus challenging with regard to commercial scalability, quality control, and consistency. Furthermore, this process relies on the ability to obtain sufficient numbers of the patients’ own immune T-cells to make adequate doses of CAR-T cells.

The "off-the-shelf" CAR-TNK approach will utilize Conkwest’s bioreactor-grown NK-92 cell line, Neukoplast, as the immune effector cells. Among the many features that distinguish Neukoplast from patient derived T-cells are the lack of IL-6 expression (the most common mediator of cytokine release syndrome), an innate capability of destroying a broad range of cancer cells as well as cancer stem cells, and scalability with batch-to-batch consistency. These Neukoplast cells can be re-engineered in a virus-free process to express surface receptors using Sorrento’s G-MAB library to yield a stable line of effector cells that recognize and target specific antigens on tumor cells. The CAR-TNK cells can also be generated and produced in large quantities, thereby obviating the need for expensive, decentralized ‘biologistics’- a critical drawback of current CAR-T and dendritic cell therapies.

"We are extremely pleased with this strategic collaboration with Conkwest", said Dr. Henry Ji, President and CEO of Sorrento. "With Sorrento’s expertise in antibody technology and diverse portfolio of fully human antibodies obtained from the G-MAB library, we believe we will be able to generate an army of stable CAR-TNK cell-lines, including but not limited to CD19-CAR-TNK, PDL1-CAR-TNK, PSMA-CAR-TNK, and CD123-CAR-TNK. It is our goal to rapidly move several of our CAR-TNK cell lines into the clinic to offer patients suffering from hematological malignancies and solid tumors an innovative immunotherapy to fight their cancers."

"Conkwest has made important strides in establishing the safety and anti-cancer activity of Neukoplast in both pre-clinical and clinical phase I trials" said Dr. Barry Simon, President and CEO of Conkwest. "We have also unlocked the potential of CAR-modified Neukoplast cells in preclinical models. By drawing from Sorrento’s treasure trove of CARs derived from their G-MAB library, we believe this partnership will enable us to realize an important part of our vision of designing and commercializing next generation Neukoplast products re-engineered to express one or more proprietary CARs that would matter most to disease outcomes. We are very excited about this opportunity in joining our resources and talent and look forward to working with the Sorrento team on this next generation of cancer immunotherapies."