Gilead's Kite Pharma and oNKo-innate Launch Three-Year Research Collaboration to Advance Next-Generation NK Cell-Based Cancer Immunotherapies

On April 21 local time, Kite Pharma, a subsidiary of Gilead Sciences, and the biotechnology company oNKo-innate announced that they had commenced a three-year research collaboration in cancer immunotherapy to support the discovery and development of next-generation drugs and cell therapies focused on natural killer (NK) cells.

Current cancer immunotherapy approaches primarily focus on T cell-mediated antitumor immunity, including immune checkpoint inhibition and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy. Like T cells, natural killer (NK) cells are a subset of lymphocytes (white blood cells) that play critical roles in immune surveillance and effector functions. Although both NK cells and T cells possess the potential to target cancer cells, they employ distinct mechanisms for killing tumor cells. Therefore, appropriately activated and targeted NK cells may represent a differentiated therapeutic approach, potentially complementary and synergistic with T cell-mediated antitumor therapies.

William A. Lee, Executive Vice President of Research at Gilead Sciences, stated: “Gilead is pleased to partner with oNKo-innate to become a leader in the new and highly promising field of cancer immunotherapy. Our strategic focus is on building expertise and pipelines in immuno-oncology, and we believe this exciting collaboration will support every one of our goals to discover and develop new cancer treatments for patients.”

Peter Emtage, Senior Vice President of Research at Kite, stated, “Kite is committed to establishing our leadership in cell therapy to meet the needs of cancer patients. The early clinical data on activated NK cells are encouraging, and we are excited about the opportunity to expand our capabilities in this area and identify new NK cell therapies to advance clinical development.”

Through this research collaboration, oNKo-innate will leverage whole-genome screening technology and its proprietary technology platform to discover novel immune cell targets, enhance NK cell anti-tumor immunity, and develop NK cell therapies. oNKo-innate will support Gilead Sciences in launching its immuno-oncology discovery program.

Source: Gilead, Kite and oNKo-innate Announce Research Collaboration to Discover Cancer Immunotherapies Focused on Natural Killer (NK) Cells

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