Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 3, 2015 – Kiadis Pharma N.V. (“Kiadis Pharma” or the “Company”) (Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels: KDS), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative T-cell immunotherapy treatments for blood cancers and inherited blood disorders, today announces that data from the Company’s ongoing Phase II clinical trial (NCT01794299/EudraCT 2012-004461-41) with its lead product ATIR101™ has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Program Committee for presentation at the 57th Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida on December 7, 2015.
The abstract provides data on Kiadis Pharma’s international multi-center study, in which a total of 23 leukemia patients, including patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), have been enrolled to be treated with ATIR101™ as part of their transplant regimen. In addition, the abstract includes a comparison to a historic control group.
Title: Donor Lymphocytes Depleted of Alloreactive T-Cells (ATIR101) Reduce Transplant Related Mortality and Improve Overall Survival in Haploidentical HSCT for Patients with AML and ALL, Using an Immunosuppressant-Free Transplant Regimen
Date: Monday, December 7, 2015 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM EST
Number: 4391
Session: 732. Clinical Allogeneic Transplantation: Results: Poster III
Location: Orange County Convention Center, Hall A
The abstract is scheduled to be available at www.hematology.org on Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST). In addition, the abstract will be published online in the December 3, 2015 supplemental volume of Blood.
About ATIR101™
For patients suffering from blood cancers, an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is generally regarded as the most effective curative approach. During an HSCT treatment, the bone marrow, harbouring the diseased cancer cells, is completely destroyed and subsequently replaced by stem cells in the graft from a healthy donor. After an HSCT treatment it usually takes the patient at least six to twelve months to recover to near-normal blood cell levels and immune cell functions. During this period, the patient is highly vulnerable to infections caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi but also to disease relapse.
ATIR101™ (Allodepleted T-cell ImmunotheRapeutics) provides for a safe donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) from a partially matched (haploidentical) family member without the risk of causing severe Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GVHD). The T-cells in ATIR101™ will help fight infections and remaining tumour cells and thereby bridge the time until the immune system has fully re-grown from stem cells in the transplanted graft.
In ATIR101™, T-cells that would cause GVHD are eliminated from the donor lymphocytes using Kiadis Pharma’s photodepletion technology, minimising the risk of GVHD and eliminating the need for prophylactic immune-suppression. At the same time, ATIR101™ contains potential cancer killing T-cells from the donor that could eliminate residual cancer cells and help prevent relapse of the disease, known as the Graft-versus-Leukaemia (GVL) effect.
Therefore, ATIR101™, administered as an adjunctive immuno-therapeutic on top of HSCT, provides the patient with functional, mature immune cells from a partially matched family donor that can fight infections and tumour cells but that do not cause GVHD. ATIR101™ thus has the potential to make curative HSCT a viable option to many more patients.
The Company estimates that approximately 35% of patients who are eligible and in urgent need of HSCT will not find a matching donor in time. A partially matched (haploidentical) family donor, however, will be available to over 95% of patients.
ATIR101™, consisting of donor T-cells that fight infections and residual tumour cells while not eliciting severe GVHD, is designed to result in low relapse rates and low rates of death due to infections, in the absence of severe acute GVHD.
