• No evidence of neurotoxicity or cytokine release syndrome
• Early signals of tumor biomarker suppression and disease stabilization beyond 6 months in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma
• iNKTs demonstrated potent tumor killing in solid tumor models
  

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MiNK Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery, development, and commercialization of allogeneic, off-the-shelf, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapies to treat cancer and other immune-mediated diseases, today announced preliminary survival data from its phase 1 study of, agenT-797 (iNKT cell therapy) in intubated COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome patients, and also presented new insights on its iNKT programs in cancer at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 36th Annual Meeting (SITC 2021).

“The data from the study of iNKTs in patients with COVID-19 respiratory failure are compelling and show a much higher survival rate than we have seen in our community-based cohort of older, intubated patients,” said Dr. Terese Hammond, Director of Pulmonary Critical Care at Providence Saint John’s Health Care Center ICU. “Importantly, little has changed in respiratory failure management since 2000¹ so the use of iNKT therapies in critical care medicine could potentially be a game changer.”

“Collectively, our SITC data highlight the disease modifying potential of agenT-797 in cancer and infections,” said Jennifer Buell, Ph.D., President and CEO of MiNK Therapeutics. “We are enthusiastic about these findings and plan to rapidly expand our clinical programs, including our solid tumor trial of agenT-797 in combination with checkpoint inhibitors which is now cleared by the FDA to start dosing.”

MiNK data demonstrated:

• AgenT-797 in COVID-19 respiratory failure showed a 77% survival rate in older, ventilated patients compared to the national average approximating 20-30%.
• AgenT-797 demonstrated early signals of tumor biomarker suppression and disease stabilization beyond 6 months in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma without lymphodepletion.
• MiNK has developed proprietary methods for the study of iNKTs, including a digital PCR-based methodology to track unmodified allogeneic iNKT cells in patients and a xenograft model for the study of agenT-797 to recapitulate human iNKT cell distribution and evaluate efficacy in tumor models.
• iNKTs infiltrate tumors where they are activated and proliferate over time. Flow cytometric analysis revealed infiltration of iNKT cells to the blood, spleen, bone marrow, and liver.
• iNKTs demonstrated potent preclinical tumor killing and cytotoxicity in solid and liquid cancers with a reduction in tumor size in the iNKT treated models.
• MiNK’s novel CAR discovery platform, CARDIS, enables rapid and efficient identification of CAR candidates.
• MiNK’s allogeneic iNKT cells can be engineered for selective targeting and Agent-F6 -BCMA-CAR-INKT is a highly potent cell therapy product showing cytotoxicity against BCMA expressing tumors cells. Novel-CAR-iNKT INDs are planned for 2022.
  

The poster presentations can be accessed on the investor section of MiNK’s website at https://investor.minktherapeutics.com/events-and-presentations.

About MiNK Therapeutics
MiNK Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the discovery, development, and commercialization of allogeneic invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapies to treat cancer and other immune-mediated diseases. MiNK is advancing a pipeline of both native and next generation engineered iNKT programs, with a platform designed to facilitate scalable and reproducible manufacturing for off-the-shelf delivery. The company is headquartered in New York, NY. For more information, please visit https://minktherapeutics.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding clinical development and regulatory plans and timelines, anticipated corporate milestones, new clinical data and program updates to be presented. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the factors described under the Risk Factors section of our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Agenus cautions investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release, and MiNK Therapeutics undertakes no obligation to update or revise the statements, other than to the extent required by law. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Contact
MiNK Therapeutics 
Kimberly Ha
KKH Advisors
917-291-5744
kimberly.ha@kkhadvisors.com

¹ The Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network; N Engl J Med 2000; 342:1301-1308

Source: MiNK Therapeutics