NantKwest Chairman & CEO Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong Exercises $39 Million in Warrants and Options in Support of NK’s Natural Killer Cell Strategic Vision Beyond Check Point Immunotherapy

NantKwest (Nasdaq:NK), a leading clinical-stage, natural killer cell based therapeutics company, today announced that Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, the company’s Chairman & CEO, on March 21, 2019, exercised 17,589,250 warrants with an exercise price of $1.9984 and 1,851,000 options with an exercise price of $2.1983, representing an aggregate cash exercise price of $39.2.

In commenting on the exercise of the warrants and options, Dr. Soon-Shiong said the following: “Since the launch of NantKwest in 2015, the company has made remarkable progress in the development of a true, 'off-the-shelf' and 'ready-to-use' Natural Killer (NK) cell therapy that could be shipped on an 'as needed basis,' just about anywhere in the world. We have successfully established a truly off-the-shelf, cryopreserved product and are now ready to embark on pivotal trials. This advanced manufacturing capability combined with our ability to develop NK cells with high killing activity provides us with a distinct advantage as the leading company developing an immediately available NK cell therapy for patients with cancer.”

Dr. Soon-Shiong continued, “My commitment and confidence in the future success of NantKwest has never been stronger. I firmly believe that the natural killer cell represents the missing link in our war against cancer. I believe that only by orchestrating the activity of the natural killer cell, the innate immune system, as well as the killer T cell, the adaptive immune system, could we achieve long lasting responses to immunotherapy. NantKwest represents this next generation of cell therapy with the potential to achieve activation of the memory T and NK cell, the holy grail of immunotherapy. Contributing an additional $39.2 million to the financial resources of NantKwest will enable the rapid opening of multiple clinical trial sites for the Phase 2 trial of off-the-shelf activated natural killer cells (haNK cells), combined with an IL-15 cytokine (N-803) which may proliferate NK and T cells, to treat refractory patients suffering from a deadly disease, Merkel Cell Carcinoma. In addition, preclinical data of the world’s first targeted off-the-shelf haNK cells (t-haNK) are highly encouraging and we are planning the first in human trials of both PD-L1 t-haNK and CD-19 t-haNK (targeted-haNKs) this year.”