I'm not sure Novo Nordisk's decision to return NKG2A to IPH was driven by the Ph1 RA results. When Novo swapped lirilumab back to IPH a few years ago, they acquired the full rights to anti-NKG2D (NN8555)(formerly IPH 2301) which is currently in a Ph2b Inflammation/ Crohn's disease trial. Perhaps Novo felt sufficiently comfortable with the progress of the NKG2D asset in inflammation that it made sense for them to move forward with a 100% owned drug. My bet is that once Novo decided to progress NKG2D, they recognized the best way to leverage their NKG2A asset was to to license it back to IPH. At the same time I think it's interesting that Novo took equity in IPH for the NKG2A asset.
fwiw, there seems to be quite a bit of literature supporting HLA-E expression by tumor cells, most notably in lymphomas, ovarian, gliomas, colon cancer, and melanomas. I was somewhat surprised at how quickly the company is moving forward with Ph2 PoC trials across three indications in both single-agent and combo trials.
