Patient With Parkinson Disease to Receive Compassionate Use of NK Cell Therapy

The FDA has approved NKGen Biotech’s natural killer cell (NK) therapy SNK01 for compassionate use in treating a patient with Parkinson disease (PD).¹ NKGen is the American branch of Korean company NKMAX.¹

"The patient who will be treated for Parkinson's disease this time was desperately hoping to administer SNK01 because various treatments were carried out but were ineffective," said an official from NKMAX in a statement.¹ "The American patient will travel to the hospital on a private plane every 3 weeks to receive SNK01 which is expected to address the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease."

SNK01 is the subject of a collaboration between NKGenBitoech and the Parkinson’s Foundation minted in November 2022.² The collaboration isfocusing on ways to help accelerate the development of SNK01 for the treatment of advanced PD through its network of clinical partners and donors.

“The Parkinson’s Foundation has a strong commitment to identify and accelerate promising scientific breakthroughs in the treatment of PD,” John L. Lehr, president and chief executive officer, Parkinson’s Foundation, said in a statement at that time.² “We are looking to support novel innovative approaches in PD, and we are attracted to NKGen’s unwavering commitment to bring their NK cell therapy to the clinic very quickly.”

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SNK01 is an autologous, NK cell therapy. It is NKGen’s lead candidate and is also currently being assessed in clinical trials for the treatment of advanced refractory solid tumors both as a monotherapy and in combination with other agents, including checkpoint inhibitors and cell engagers.It is in phase 2 clinical trials for stage 4 non-small cell lung cancerin combination with pembrolizumab, phase 1 trials forrefractory PD-LI positive and negative solid tumors in combination with avelumab or pembrolizumab, and phase 1 trials forEGFR+ solid tumors in combination with AFM24. As a monotherapy, it is in phase 1 trials for refractory solid tumors.

“Recent research has shown that NK cells can help remove alpha-synuclein proteins, reduce autoreactive T cell generated inflammation, and remove damaged neurons. We believe our non-genetically modified, enhanced, and expanded NK cells (SNK01) can provide an entirely new therapeutic approach to Parkinson’s disease which currently lacks effective disease modifying modalities,” Paul Y. Song, MD, Vice Chairman, NKGen Biotech, added to the statement.² “We are very impressed with the Parkinson’s Foundation’s holistic approach towards improving patient care and supporting cutting-edge research. We are confident that they will be a great partner for us as we bring our treatment for Parkinson’s disease to the clinic in 2023.”

REFERENCES

1. NKMAX's NK cell therapy for Parkinson’s scores FDA compassionate use approval. News release. NKMAX. February 23, 2023. https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=20514
2. NKGen Biotech announces collaboration with the Parkinson’s Foundation to bring its novel natural killer cell therapy to the clinic for advanced Parkinson’s disease. News release. NKGen. Biotpech. Novemebr 4, 2022. https://nkgenbiotech.com/nkgen-biotech-announces-collaboration-with-the-parkinsons-foundation-to-bring-its-novel-natural-killer-cell-therapy-to-the-clinic-for-advanced-parkinsons-disease/