Benzinga | Mar 31, 2021 06:32AM EDT

Affimed And NKMax America Announce FDA Clearance Of IND Application To Study Combination Of AFM24 With SNK-01 Natural Killer Cell Therapy In Solid Tumors

Affimed N.V. (NASDAQ:AFMD), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, and NKMax America Inc., a clinical stage biotech company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared an investigational new drug application (IND) for an Affimed and NKMax America co-sponsored Phase 1/2a dose escalation and expansion study in which the two companies will investigate the combination of AFM24, an EGFR/CD16A innate cell engager (ICE(r)), and SNK-01, an autologous NK-cell product, in patients suffering from tumors known to express EGFR. The combination represents a novel approach to exploring innate immunity-based therapeutics to treat patients with solid tumors who failed conventional therapy with the aim to improve outcomes for high-medical need patient populations.

"This combination is part of our overall development strategy for AFM24, the first and only innate cell engager in clinical development for solid tumors. In addition to NK cell-based combinations, we are also developing AFM24 as single agent and in combination with atezolizumab in several tumor indications," said Dr. Andreas Harstrick, Affimed's Chief Medical Officer. "The mechanism of action of the two compounds could be highly synergistic as AFM24 has strong binding affinity to NK cells, directing them to kill tumor cells. Moreover, this combination approach represents an opportunity to supplement patients with dysregulated innate immune systems with targeted cellular therapy."

"The FDA clearance of our IND application for SNK-01 in combination with AFM24 is an important milestone for our Natural Killer cell therapy development program," said Stephen Chen, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technical Officer of NKMax America. "We look forward to investigating this combination as part of our comprehensive strategy aimed at producing a cell therapy for patients with advanced/metastatic EGFR-expressing cancers."