Amazing!
NK-214 looks like it has staying power!
So many times with cancer drugs, patients have a short term response and then they relapse.
After the SITC presentation I was afraid something similar would happen with NK-214-- it has happened with
essentially ever other cancer therapy. But no. In the presentation below, they are updating the November results till
this month. Most of the responders are still responding and some of them have actually demonstrated enhanced
later response versus their initial response. This is remarkable. The patients involved were stage IV treatment
naive (e.g. in melanoma). Looks like they are set to go with a large phase III trial soon.
http://ir.nektar.com...3e-3f3dd5fd1484
Of course, NK-214 is targets the Il-2 pathway. This has substantial implications for it being applied in ACT. Nektar seems to be still
at an early stage in advancing this line of the research.
I hope that the FDA will allow for NK-214 to move rapidly through the clinical trial process now. The numbers that have been posted to
date are startling. The responses have resulted in clinically meaningful benefits to patients. It should not take long for this to be clearly seen
in the clinical results.
One thing that I am not sure about is whether there is a biomarker for response for NK-214. Calitheria's drug had a biomarker screen that could predict
response prospectively. Does Nektar have a way of selecting for responders? That would completely uncork this one! If they select those patients who
are likely responders and average time to first response is 2-3 months then this could indeed to be on the way to a rapid trip to the market.