Affimed’s natural killer cell therapy has murky path forward despite encouraging results

NEW ORLEANS — An experimental immunotherapy from Affimed for patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma has started to demonstrate long-lasting remissions that have, so far, eluded other treatments involving so-called natural killer cells.

But while the study update presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology delivered encouraging news, the German biotech’s path forward remains murky due to changes to the treatment’s manufacturing process and the new restrictions enacted by the Food and Drug Administration on accelerated approvals of cancer drugs.

The cell therapy is being developed by Affimed in collaboration with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. It combines natural killer, or NK, cells — a type of immune system cell — with a separate antibody called AFM13 that primes the cells to recognize a specific protein signature of the tumors.

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