On April 11, 2022 Artiva Biotherapeutics, Inc., an oncology company whose mission is to deliver highly effective, off-the-shelf, allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies to treat cancer, reported that it has entered into an agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada (Press release, Artiva Biotherapeutics, APR 11, 2022, View Source [SID1234611931]). Under the agreement, Merck will evaluate the therapeutic potential of combinations of tri-specific NK-cell engager candidates with clinical grade AB-101 NK cells generated from Artiva’s AlloNKTM platform.

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"We have established a fantastic working relationship with Merck over the last year and we are happy to expand our collaboration to include the combination of our AlloNK platform NK cells with tri-specific NK-cell engager candidates," said Peter Flynn, Ph.D., cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of Artiva.

Artiva and Merck originally entered into a collaboration and exclusive license agreement in January 2021 for the discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization of CAR-NK cells that target certain solid tumor-associated antigens. The collaboration leverages Artiva’s off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell manufacturing platform, along with its proprietary CAR-NK technology, and includes two CAR-NK programs with an option for a third, none of which are in Artiva’s current or planned pipeline. Artiva’s platform supports large-scale production and cryopreservation of off-the-shelf allogeneic NK and CAR-NK therapeutics.