AFMD - Affimed soars 22% on team up with Artiva to develop combo cell therapy

Germany's Affimed ( NASDAQ: AFMD ) stock rose ~22% on Thursday after the company said it signed an agreement with San Diego-based Artiva Biotherapeutics to jointly develop and commercialize a combination therapy to treat cancer.

The combo therapy consists of Affimed's AFM13 and Artiva's cord blood-derived, off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell product AB-101.

Affimed said it submitted a pre-IND meeting request to the U.S. FDA for feedback on a clinical trial design of the co-administered combination therapy in relapsed/refractory (r/r) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) with one group evaluating the combination in r/r CD30-positive peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) and potential path to registration.

The FDA responded to this request and is expected to provide feedback by Q1 2023, the company noted.

This clinical agreement follows the two companies' existing two-year preclinical collaboration.

Under the agreement, Affimed will lead regulatory activities through phase 2 and any confirmatory studies . Affimed will be responsible for funding trial costs through phase 2, while Artiva will be responsible for the costs of supplying AB-101 and IL-2 for the studies.

Affimed will receive 67% of the combination therapy revenues while Artiva would receive 33%, the companies noted.

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