GC Cell's Artiva to Collaborate with MSD on NK Cell Therapy Development

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Artiva, an affiliate of GC Cell (GC Cell), is partnering with multinational pharmaceutical company MSD to jointly develop the NK cell therapy 'AB-101'.

On the 11th (local time), Artiva announced on the 12th that it had signed a joint development agreement to evaluate the anticancer effects by combining AB-101 with MSD's 'trispecific NK cell engager.' Artiva was established in 2019 in San Diego, USA, by GC Cell (then Green Cross LabCell) and Green Cross Holdings to develop cell therapies.

MSD's trispecific NK cell engager binds to specific antigens expressed on cancer cells and NK cells, then activates NK cells to directly kill cancer cells and activates other immune cells around the cancer cells to eliminate the cancer. Through this mechanism, it targets and directly eliminates cancer antigens without genetic modification, enabling therapeutic effects similar to CAR-NK.

AB-101 is a new drug under development as a cord blood-derived NK cell therapy. It is one of the allogeneic cord blood-derived NK cell pipelines based on technology transferred from GC Cell. Artiva received FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) approval in December 2020 and is currently conducting Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in the United States for patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma.

Peter Flynn, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Artiva, said, "Over the past year, we have built a fantastic collaborative relationship with MSD, and we are pleased to expand our partnership to include the development of trispecific antibody candidates based on allogeneic NK cell therapies." Earlier, in January last year, Artiva and GC Cell signed a mega platform technology export contract worth 2 trillion KRW with MSD. Through this, they are currently jointly developing a total of three CAR-NK cell therapies with MSD for the treatment of solid tumors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.