Connecting the Dots of ANKTIVA’s Triangle Offense

A Deep Dive with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and Dr. Ashish Kamat in a Three-Part UroToday Podcast

ImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX) today announced the publication of three podcasts with UroToday highlighting the company’s recent FDA approval of ANKTIVA (N-803, or nogapendekin alfa inbakicept-pmln) plus Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) carcinoma in situ (CIS) and advances in bladder cancer research.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Executive Chairman and Global Chief Scientific at ImmunityBio, discussed the breaking news of the FDA approval of Anktiva with Ashish Kamat, M.D., MBBS, an Endowed Professor of Urologic Oncology and Cancer Research at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the recent American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting.

In a three-part interview with Dr. Kamat, Dr. Soon-Shiong provided an in-depth overview of ANKTIVA’s unique mechanism of action, the implications of this mechanism for cancer immunotherapy, supply updates, and ImmunityBio’s new partnership with the Serum Institute of India (SII), which will help ensure BCG supply is available for patients treated with ANKTIVA. Dr. Soon-Shiong introduced the concept of a MHC-negative bladder cancer cell, attacked by the natural killer cell and Anktiva’s property to restore killer T cells and memory T cells as the mechanism of achieving durable complete responses.

“The reports that BCG induces loss of MHC has only been recently discovered, resulting in progression of the cancer with cancer immune evasion from the T cells. These MHC-negative cells are the exact target for natural killer cells which ANKTIVA activates. The potential to convert a MHC-negative (cold) tumor to a MHC-positive (hot) tumor with NK cell activation, and restoring CD8+ killer T cells and memory T cells, may have important implications in addressing cancers that have reached this stage of escape and progression,” said Dr. Soon-Shiong.

“The approval of this treatment represents a next-generation immunotherapy beyond checkpoint inhibitors and provides a new treatment option for patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC,” he said.

ANKTIVA, a first-in-class IL-15 receptor agonist, received approval from the FDA on April 22 for the treatment of patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC CIS. ANKTIVA’s unique mechanism of action activates the body’s natural killer cells and killer T-cell immune system to attack tumor cells. It also stimulates memory T cells, leading to long-lasting complete responses.