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NantKwest Announces Presentation at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting; NK-92 Phase 1 Clinical Data on Dosing and Long-Term Survival in Relapsed Hematological Malignancies

IBRX | December 3, 2015

NantKwest, Inc. (Nasdaq: NK), a clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on harnessing the power of the innate immune system by using natural killer cells to treat cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases, today announced that the results of a Phase I clinical trial of NK-92 therapy will be presented at the 2015 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, to be held December 5-8, 2015 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.

“At the upcoming ASH meeting, updated clinical data will be presented regarding NK-92 therapy,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., chairman and chief executive officer of NantKwest. “Data from the study demonstrate that NK-92 can be administered at very high doses with virtually no toxicity to patients with relapsed/refractory hematological malignancies. The study was also the first to include patients with multiple myeloma. Most of these patients did not mount cellular immune responses, despite receiving very large numbers of NK cells. The data supports the potential that NK-92 can serve as a standardized, off-the-shelf cellular treatment for malignant tumors and could provide a platform for gene modified targeted cell therapy.”

Details of the presentation are listed below and available on the ASH website:

Abstract #4297

Title: “NK-92 Therapy Is Well Tolerated, Has Minimal Toxicity and Shows Efficacy in a Phase I Trial of Patients with Relapsed/Refractory Hematological Malignancies Relapsing after Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation.”
Presentation Day/Time/Location: Monday, December 7, 2015 from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. in Hall A of the Orange County Convention Center.
Lead Author: Brent Williams BSc (Hon), BSc(Med), MD, PhD, FRCP(C), FAAP Associate Staff, Division of Emergency Medicine The Hospital for Sick Children Research Associate, Cell Therapy Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.
Session: 703 Adoptive Immunotherapy: Poster III.

The abstract will also be published online in the December 3 supplemental volume of Blood.

About NK-92

NK-92 are natural killer (NK) cells and the only cell line that can be commercialized as a direct, scalable, off-the-shelf product that attacks and kills abnormal cells on contact. Unlike other immunotherapies, NK-92 does not require an intact immune system to effect killing of diseased cells in the body. It has demonstrated broad anti-cancer activity both in vitro and in clinical trials, while sparing patients from debilitating adverse reactions seen commonly with traditional chemotherapies. NK-92 cells are also being engineered to target specific cancers and also to express a receptor that will couple with monoclonal antibodies to enhance their cancer-killing effects.

About NantKwest Inc.

NantKwest (Nasdaq:NK) is a pioneering, next generation, clinical-stage immunotherapy company focused on harnessing the unique power of our immune system using natural killer (NK) cells to treat cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases. NK cells are the body’s first line of defense due to the innate ability of NK cells to rapidly identify and destroy cells under stress, such as cancer or virally-infected cells.

NantKwest’s unique NK cell-based platform, with the capacity to grow active killer cells as a biological cancer therapy, has been designed to induce cell death against cancer or infected cells by three different modes of action: (1) Direct killing using activated NK cells (aNK) that release toxic granules directly into the cell through cell to cell contact, (2) Antibody-mediated killing using haNKs, which are NK cells engineered to incorporate a high affinity receptor that binds to an administered antibody, enhancing the cancer cell killing effect of that antibody, and (3) Targeted activated killing using taNKs, which are NK cells engineered to incorporate chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to target tumor-specific antigens found on the surface of cancer cells.

Our aNK, haNK and taNK platform addresses certain limitations of T cell therapies including the reduction of risk of serious "cytokine storms" reported after T cell therapy. As an “off-the-shelf” therapy, NantKwest's NK cells do not rely on a patient’s own often compromised immune system. In Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with late stage cancer, NantKwest's NK cells have been successfully administered as an outpatient infusion therapy without any reported severe side effects, even at doses of 10 billion cells.

By leveraging an integrated and extensive genomics and transcriptomics discovery and development engine, together with a pipeline of multiple, clinical-stage, immuno-oncology programs that include a Phase 2 trial for a rare form of melanoma and the planned initiation of a clinical trial of NK cells targeted to breast cancer, we believe NantKwest is uniquely positioned to be the premier immunotherapy company and transform medicine by delivering living drugs in a bag and bringing novel NK cell-based therapies to routine clinical care.

This news release contains certain statements of a forward-looking nature relating to future events or future business performance. Any such statements, including, but not limited to, the success and timing of our clinical trials and preclinical studies for our product candidates, whether expressed or implied, are subject to risks and uncertainties which can cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors which include, but are not limited to, including site initiation, internal review board approval, scientific review committee approval, patient accrual, safety, tolerability and efficacy data observed, and input from regulatory authorities; our plans to develop and commercialize our product candidates; our available cash and investments; our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for our product candidates; our ability to manufacture; the performance of third-party manufacturers, clinical research organizations, clinical trial sponsors and clinical trial investigators, and other risk factors discussed in the company's Form 10-K and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. These forward-looking statements represent the company's judgment as of the date of this news release. The company disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.