NantKwest to Present Data at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology

NantKwest Inc. (Nasdaq:NK), 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, today announced several presentations at the upcoming 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego, CA, December 3-6, 2016.

“NantKwest continues to make significant progress in our preclinical and clinical development efforts,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, Chairman and CEO of NantKwest. “We are pleased to present these results at the upcoming annual ASH meeting and remain focused on bringing our novel, natural killer cell based therapies to the routine clinical cancer setting for a broad range of cancer types.”

Presentation Summaries

Combination Therapy with Daratumumab and CAR-NK Targeting CS1 for Multiple Myeloma

• Abstract #1342, https://ash.confex.com/ash/2016/webprogram/Paper95676.html
• Presenter: Yibo Zhang, PhD, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
• Saturday, December 3, 2016, 5:30 – 7:30 PM, Hall GH

This poster will review the combination of Daratumumab and CS1.taNK therapy targeting two different tumor-associated antigens, both with potent efficacy in multiple myeloma, which may have synergistic effects.

Phase 1 Clinical Trial of Adoptive Immunotherapy Using “Off-The-Shelf” Activated Natural Killer Cells (aNK) in Patients with Refractory/Relapsed Acute Myeloid Leukemia

• Abstract #1649, https://ash.confex.com/ash/2016/webprogram/Paper92748.html
• Presenter: Michael Boyiadzis, MD, MHSc, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, UPMC Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
• Saturday, December 3, 2016, 5:30 – 7:30 PM, Hall GH

This poster will review a Phase I clinical trial of the safety and efficacy of “off-the-shelf” aNK cell therapy in heavily pretreated patients with refractory/relapsed AML

CD19 Target Activated Natural Killer (CD19.taNK) Cellular Therapy: A Novel Immunotherapeutic Approach to the Treatment of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL)

• Abstract #4174, https://ash.confex.com/ash/2016/webprogram/Paper97691.html
• Presenter: Ravi Dashnamoorthy, PhD, Molecular Oncology Research Institute, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA
• Monday, December 5, 2016, 6:00 – 8:00 PM, Hall GH

This poster will review the potent single agent anti-tumor activity against a range of NHL cell and ongoing activity into the biological mechanisms of activity of CD19.taNK therapy and potential combination therapy approaches.

About NantKwest

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. For more information, please visit http://www.nantkwest.com.

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