Colorized scanning electron micrographs of natural killer cells from a human donor (Images: NIH / Graphics: Shehla Shakoor, Endpoints News)

Kiadis aban­dons lead PhI­II pro­gram, shifts fo­cus to nat­ur­al killer cells

Kiadis Phar­ma an­nounced that it is shift­ing fo­cus to nat­ur­al killer cells — and is it­self killing off the long-run­ning but deeply trou­bled Phase III ATIR pro­gram that has large­ly de­fined the com­pa­ny. It will cut ap­prox­i­mate­ly half of its work­force.

Kiadis ac­quired Cy­toSen Ther­a­peu­tics and its nat­ur­al killer (NK) tech­nol­o­gy in April. The Nether­lands-based Kiadis had been de­vel­op­ing a T cell ther­a­py called ATIR101 that was then in Phase III for blood can­cer pa­tients, name­ly acute myeloid leukemia. At the time, it seemed that the Dutch biotech would pair its T cell ther­a­py with the US-based NKs in an in­ter­con­ti­nen­tal, mul­ti-cel­lu­lar ef­fort with im­pli­ca­tions for trans­plants and on­col­o­gy.

Endpoints News

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