Staying with innovation in oncology, my conversations pointed me in the direction of Cytovia Therapeutics – a company created in the summer 2019 to harness the power of natural killer (NK) cells to defeat cancer.
Kaouthar Lbiati, VP of Product Strategy, told me how the Boston-based biotech is one of a handful of companies capable of producing billions of identical NK cells or gene edited CAR NK cells, from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). iPSC derived NK cells have superior characteristics vs NK cells legacy and hold the promise of being more potent than Blood Cord derived NK. These cells treat cancer patients safely and effectively with multiple doses that are administered in the hospital or in an outpatient basis.
Most importantly, Cytovia is the first NK cell therapy company to develop their own bispecific antibodies to target both NK cells and well identified and validated targets on the tumor cells. Bispecifics have the potential to be used synergistically with universal NK cells in select solid tumors and blood cancers.
Precision NK therapies have the potential to revolutionize cancer treatment with unsurpassed safety and efficacy. Cytovia is expected to bring their NK Cell Engager antibodies and CAR-NK cell therapies to initial clinical trials in 2021 and 2022, moving towards broad patient access to cancer-defeating cures.
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