Artiva
Advancing the First Allogeneic NK Cell Therapy for Autoimmune Disease
Artiva Biotherapeutics is a clinical-stage company with the mission to deliver a highly effective, safe, off-the-shelf, cell-based therapy harnessing the power of natural killer (NK) cells for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus in patients with active lupus nephritis. NK cells are a part of the body’s innate immune system and serve as a first line of surveillance and defense against foreign or diseased cells.
To develop AlloNK, the company’s non-genetically modified, cord blood-derived, allogeneic NK cell therapy, Artiva had to create a manufacturing platform that solves for obtaining enough NK cells to dose (and multi-dose) many patients from the same batch of donor cells. Its platform selects umbilical cord blood units with preferred characteristics, including the high-affinity variant of CD16 and the B-KIR haplotype, from U.S. cord blood banks. Today, Artiva’s large-scale manufacturing process is capable of producing thousands of doses of cryopreserved, infusion-ready AlloNK cells from a single umbilical cord blood unit.
Seminal clinical data with autologous CAR-T cells suggests that deep B-cell depletion can induce complete and long-lasting responses in patients with lupus nephritis. Artiva is leveraging AlloNK to enhance the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity of rituximab, a monoclonal antibody targeting CD20, to deplete B-cells in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in patients with active lupus nephritis (LN). In August 2023, Artiva announced the Investigational New Drug (IND) clearance for AlloNK plus rituximab in LN, marking the first IND clearance for an allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK cell therapy candidate in autoimmune disease. In addition to that approval, AlloNK is being investigated in two cancer clinical trials in combination with antibody or NK-engager biologics.
