Affimed Q1 2024 Earnings Report $0.63 +0.00 (+0.16%) Closing price 04/10/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$0.68 +0.05 (+7.83%) As of 07:38 AM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Affimed EPS ResultsActual EPS-$1.38Consensus EPS -$1.73Beat/MissBeat by +$0.35One Year Ago EPSN/AAffimed Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$0.17 millionExpected Revenue$1.76 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$1.59 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAffimed Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date6/12/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateWednesday, June 12, 2024Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsAffimed's Q4 2024 earnings is scheduled for Wednesday, June 11, 2025Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryAFMD ProfilePowered by Affimed Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJune 12, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, everyone, and welcome to Affimed's First Quarter 20 24 Earnings and Corporate Update Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Alex Fedakis, Head of Investor Relations at Affimed. Operator00:00:22Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, Michel, and thank you all for joining us today for our Q1 2024 update call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we issued the relevant press release and presentation on our website today, which you can find in the Investor Relations section. On the call today, we have members of our management team, including Andreas Harstrick, our Chief Medical Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Fischer, our Chief Operating Officer Denise Mueller, our Chief Business Officer and Harry Welkin, our Consulting Chief Financial Officer. Our financials today will be presented by our Vice President of Finance, Michael Wolff. The team will be available for Q and A after the prepared remarks. Speaker 100:01:10Before we start, I would like to remind you that today's presentation contains projections and forward looking statements regarding future events. These statements represent our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this call. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward looking statements publicly or to update the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the future in the forward looking statements even if new information becomes available in the future. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to, those identified under the section entitled Risk Factors and our filings with the SEC and those identified under the section entitled Forward Looking Statements in the press release that we issued today and filed with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Andreas. Speaker 100:02:11Andreas? Speaker 200:02:14Yes. Thank you, Alex, and good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q1 2024 earnings call. I'm excited to share with you today clinical data on all three of our clinical programs that as we believe are validating our approach of using the innate immune system as an additional tool to fight cancer. When we announced the strategic reorganization of Affimed and our focus on the advancement of our clinical assets in January, we guided that our goal would be to generate meaningful data for all three programs in the first half of the year. I'm proud to say and thankful to all of my co workers at Rafimed and to all our clinical investigators that today we can deliver on this guidance. Speaker 200:03:13As shown on Slide 3, we now have clinical validation for all three assets. For AFM24, we are advancing the combination study with atiselizumab in treatment refractory patients with non small cell lung cancer, both in the EGFR wild type and in the EGFR mutant subgroups. Data that we shared at ASCO demonstrate durable responses in patients with EGFR wide type tumors with 3 or 4 responses ongoing now for over 7 months. We also see meaningful and confirmed tumor responses in the EGFR mutant subgroup, a tumor type that is generally considered unresponsive to immunotherapy. We can also share exciting data for our clinical LUMINIZE trial of asymptomatic in combination with ALLO and K cells in patients with refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma. Speaker 200:04:23Several patients have had their PT scans, meanwhile assessed by blinded independent read, which will be the primary endpoint of the study as agreed upon with FDA. In these patients, we see objective responses in 6 out of 7 patients for an overall response rate of 85.7%. Importantly, this includes 4 patients with a complete remission. Finally, AFM28, our CD123 targeting ICE for the treatment of refractory AML has shown remarkable clinical activity. At dose level 5 of our single agent dose escalation study, we have observed one complete response and 5 patients with stable disease. Speaker 200:05:19At dose level 6, we see 2 patients with a complete response and a CRI respectively and 3 patients with stable disease. Importantly, the complete response from dose level 5 is now ongoing and stable for more than 5 months, and 5 of the 6 patients at dose level 6 are continuing on treatment with a possibility for further deepening of their responses. Also importantly, no dose limiting toxicities were observed in dose level 56, thereby establishing a safe and effective regimen for further development. Let us look at the data in some more detail. Today, I will start with asymptomatic. Speaker 200:06:13As a reminder, on Slide 5, you see the trial design as agreed upon with FDA. We now have completed enrollments into cohorts 12 and are actively recruiting cohorts 34. We admit that there is still a slight delay in recruitment compared to our initial expectations as discussed on our last earnings call. This is mainly due to a higher rate of patient dropout during the screening period. However, with additional sites now active and more experience with the protocol at the site level, we expect to see further improvement in patient recruitment and a reduction in the dropout rate. Speaker 200:07:04In terms of safety shown on Slide 6, the adverse event profile is in line with our previous experience with asymptomatic and the combination of asymptomatic and allogeneic NK cells respectively. It is important to note that in the LUMINIe-two zero three study, we did not use steroids as part of the pre medication for asymptomatic and therefore, we were expecting a slightly higher rate of infusion related reactions compared to some studies with asymptomatic in which steroid pre medication was routinely used. 4 of 7 patients developed a Grade 1 or 2 infusion related reactionCRS event. 1 of these 4 patients had a short lasting Grade 3 CRS as assessed by the investigator, which manifested mainly by high fever and a decrease in blood pressure. However, the patient responded readily to standard of care treatment. Speaker 200:08:13Importantly, in this patient, shortly after this event, there was also an acute CMV infection diagnosed. And thus, the relative contribution of the infusion of asymptomatic versus acute CMV infection to the overall symptoms is not clear. Importantly, there were no treatment discontinuations due to side effects of asymptomatic or LONK. Also, there were no instances of bleeding, ICANS or graft versus host disease. As a clinical activity of the combination is, I think, remarkable as shown on Slide 7. Speaker 200:08:566 of 7 patients showed an objective response by independent read, including 4 patients with a complete remission. These data are directly comparable with the data that were reported by MD Anderson Cancer Center for asymptomatic in combination with fresh pre complexed NK cells. And thus indicate that co administration of an ICE with allogeneic NK cells is active, that no pre complexing is needed and that cryopreserved NK cells seem to be comparable to fresh NK cells in terms of antitumor activity. Also, these results demonstrate that data from the single site study at MD Anderson are reproducible in a multicenter setting as these 7 patients were enrolled by 4 different institutions. Slide 8 shows the patient's characteristics underscoring that these patients are heavily pretreated with a median of 4 lines of previous therapy. Speaker 200:10:07All patients had failed combination chemotherapy, PD-one targeting therapy and brentaximab. In addition, 5 of 7 patients had also failed after autologous stem cell transplant. On Slide 9, you see an example of a patient with multiple manifestations of his refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma, including axillary lymph nodes, supraclavicular lymph nodes, spleen and inguinal lymph nodes. The patient had failed all standard of care options, including stem cell transplant and presented with B symptoms, which clinically is a very unfavorable prognostic factor. As you can see, all tumor manifestations resolved after only one cycle of therapy. Speaker 200:10:58Let's move on to AFM24. Since we presented the data in detail during our ASCO presentation, I will be brief here. As shown on Slide 11, the combination of AFM24 and Atezolizumab has meaningful activity in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR white type non small cell lung cancer. In 15 evaluable patients, there were 4 objective responses and 8 patients with stable disease. Of note, all patients had failed combination chemotherapy and PD-one targeting therapy. Speaker 200:11:35All responders were documented progressive on previous anti PD-one treatment. Importantly, the responses and the tumor control induced by AFM24 Atezolizumab appear to be durable as shown on Slide 12, where you see the long term follow-up data. The progression free survival for the whole study population is 5.9 months, which compares favorable to the 4.5 months, which is usually achieved in these patients with standard of care treatment. Even more encouraging is the fact that 3 ml of C4 emissions are still ongoing now at more than 7, more than 8 and more than 9 months, respectively. It appears very unlikely that these data can be explained by atezolizumab activity alone. Speaker 200:12:29Even though there are occasional responses to PD-one rechallenge after intervening chemotherapy, PFS data in these patients have been very short. Even in PD-one non pretreated patients, in platinum refractory non small cell lung cancer, atezolizumab has shown a progression free survival interval of only 2.8 months. Our recent results in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer, as shown on Slide 13, supports the activity of the AFM24 atezolizumab combination. In 13 patients that are response evaluable, 4 responses and 6 patients with stable disease were achieved. Compared to the data that reported at ASCO, meanwhile, all objective responses have been confirmed by follow-up scans and all responses are ongoing. Speaker 200:13:29This is remarkable as EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer is in general regarded as unresponsive to immunotherapy. Slide 14 shows the market opportunity for drugs that are targeting refractory non small cell lung cancer. In the 7 major markets, there are 175,000 patients with EGFR wild type non small cell lung cancer and roughly 35,000 patients with EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer annually who fail standard of care therapy and will need additional treatment options. Current treatment options for these patients are unsatisfactory with PFS durations around 4 to 4.5 months. Also, many salvage regimens include chemotherapy that is often difficult to tolerate for this heavily pretreated patients. Speaker 200:14:28The combination of AFM24 plus PD-one could provide a chemotherapy free alternative with meaningful activity and significantly better tolerability for these patients. Finally, let's review the most recent data of AFM28. Our CD123 targeting ICE for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia as shown on Slide 16. Here we have escalated the dose through 6 cohorts up to 300 milligrams weekly. I think this study is also a good example of the ability of our organization to execute clinical studies. Speaker 200:15:13The first patient in this program was treated in March 2023 and the whole dose escalation trial over 6 cohorts was executed in only 15 months. The safety profile is shown on Slide 16. For dose levels 56, we did not see any dose limiting toxicities. The most frequent side effects were infusion related reactions, mainly of low grade. Only 3 patients had a grade 2 infusion related reaction, responding in all cases to symptomatic treatment and there were no Grade 3 or higher IRRs. Speaker 200:15:54One patient experienced a short limiting short lasting self limiting CRS of Grade 1. Infections are characteristic manifestations of acute leukemia and were seen in half of the patients. However, none of the infections was considered treatment related by the investigators. In addition, we observed meaningful target interaction at doses of 200 milligrams and above with nearly a complete saturation of CD123 binding sites on the tumors and occupation levels of CD16A on the NK cells that include preclinical experiments result in potent NK cell activation. The clinical activity is displayed on Slide 17. Speaker 200:16:41In dose level 5, we saw one complete response in 5 patients with stable disease. All patients were heavily pretreated. Of note, the complete remission is still ongoing after more than 5 months. In dose level 6, we saw 2 patients with a complete response in the CRI, respectively, and 3 patients with stable disease. Five patients from dose level 6 remain on treatment with additional cycles and thus with the option to deepen their responses. Speaker 200:17:16I think these results are remarkable. Most of these patients with advanced AML have very low numbers of own NK cells when they start treatment. So it appears that AML could be very sensitive to NK cell mediated killing if already low numbers of endogenous NK cells when directed to the leukemia cells by AFM28 can produce complete responses. These data taken together with the impressive activities that we have seen was a combination of asymptomatic and allogeneic NK cells in Hodgkin lymphoma support our strategic intent to pursue further development of AFM28 in association with a cryopreserved allogeneic and K cell product. With this, we would again address an area of significant unmet medical need. Speaker 200:18:17In the 7 major markets, we see over 14,000 patients per year, who fail at least two lines of standard therapy and require a new treatment option. Many of these patients are elderly and show frequent comorbidities, thus limiting the use of aggressive chemotherapy. Immunotherapy has not been successful so far in AML. The treatment approach based on the activation of the innate immune system could therefore be an important additional strategy for the treatment of these patients. With this, I will close the overview of our clinical programs and hand over to Michael Wolf for a review of our financial data. Speaker 200:19:04Michael, please. Speaker 300:19:06Thank you, Andreas. Balance sheet and income statement highlights are shown on Slide 20 21 of the presentation. A quick reminder that Akermint's consolidated financial statements has been prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standard Board or IASP. The consolidated financial statements are prepared in euros. Since our financials are described in detail in the press release, issued this morning, I will only provide highlights on this call. Speaker 300:19:41We ended the Q1 with cash, cash equivalents and investments of €48,500,000 compared to €72,000,000 on December 31, 2023. Based on our current operating and financing plan, we anticipate that our liquidity will support operations into the second half of twenty twenty five. Net cash used in operating activities for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, was €23,800,000 compared to €33,200,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Total revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was €200,000 compared with €4,500,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was €19,200,000 compared with a net loss of €32,000,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Speaker 300:20:45Now I'll turn the call back to Andreas for final remarks. Andreas? Speaker 200:20:51Yes. Thank you, Michael. For our concluding remarks, let's go to Slide 22. I think this has been a very exciting and very successful quarter for Affimed, in which we were able to obtain clinical validation of all three of our program. I think the strongest conclusion that we draw from this data today is consistency. Speaker 200:21:19When you see a single data set in one study in one particular disease setting, of course, you may always think, could this be a chance finding? But what we are demonstrating today is consistent activity signals across 3 different programs that are all designed to leverage the power of the innate immune system to fight cancer. We see this in 4 different indications and with 2 different combinations. Initial results from our asymptomatic and LONK program show remarkable activity, which seem to be on par with the data reported by MD Anderson. The difference is that we were able to generate these data with co administration of CICE and the NK cell and with cryopreserved off the shelf NK cells. Speaker 200:22:17Both factors that enable the use of this approach in the real world multicenter setting. For AML, we see that AFM28 can induce responses even in a setting where only very few NK cells are available to fight leukemia. I think it is very reasonable to expect a boost in activity if sufficient amounts of active allogeneic NK cells are added as we have shown in our LUMINI study. Therefore, we are actively exploring ways to continue the AFM28 program in combination with off the shelf allogeneic NK cells. And last but not least, we see consistent activity for the combination of AFM24 and atiselizumab, the strategy that utilizes the crosstalk between the adaptive and the innate immune system. Speaker 200:23:18When we started this program, I think there were a lot of doubts whether innate immune system could even attack solid tumors, given the largely immunosuppressive environment that is found in many solid tumors. Meanwhile, we have demonstrated objective and durable responses in heavily pretreated EGFR wide type and non small cell lung cancer patients with the longest response now ongoing for 10 months in patients with prior documented progression on PD-one targeting therapy. This data is supported by the observation of objective and confirmed responses in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer, a disease that historically has not been sensitive to immune mediated treatments. Of note, we see these results with a regimen that does not include any chemotherapy and thus may be better tolerated in this heavily pretreated patient population. I think the totality of the data reported today support our strong belief that the innate immune system can be utilized to fight multiple types of hematological and solid tumors and that Affimed's proprietary IC molecules can provide the necessary targeting and activation. Speaker 200:24:47As guided, we will have additional important data readouts in the course of the year. Afimed with its portfolio of several potent NK cell engagers and with its experienced and highly motivated clinical development organization is well suited to advance the use of the innate immune system as an additional treatment option for patients in need. We will continue our path to advance these exciting programs and thereby bring value to our organization, our patients and our shareholders. With this, I thank you all for your attention, I'm happy to take questions. Operator, please? Operator00:25:28Thank Our first question comes from Kripa Devarkanda with Tuohy Securities. Your line is open. Speaker 400:25:46Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my questions and congrats on all the progress across the three assets you have. So I have a question about Luminize. You talked you mentioned that cohorts 12 were enrolled. Our assumption is that that's 12 patients. Speaker 400:26:05We saw data from 7 patients today. I know you said you were going to see updates later. Just wanted to get clarification on the remaining 5 patients. Have they not reached the first scan, which if I remember correctly, 7 weeks? And when we see the next update, will we get durability data or have a sense of the longest duration of follow-up? Speaker 400:26:29Thank you. Speaker 200:26:32Yes. Thank you, Kripa, for your question. So first, your conclusion is right. We have included 12 patients in cohorts 12. So they are filled. Speaker 200:26:40We are actively recruiting cohorts 34 now. The reason why we have not shown the data of the remaining 5 patients simply as we mentioned that we initially had a certain delay in recruitment. So these patients are in the middle of their treatment, their first cycle. As you rightfully say, we have our first assessment on roughly week 7, week 8. Now what we also reported today is that we want all PET CT scans to be evaluated by blinded independent read, which is the FDA prescribed final endpoint. Speaker 200:27:20So we wanted to make sure that data will really be consistent with the data sets that may go to FDA. This may add another 2 to 3 weeks before you have your independent final readout data. So we will have the data of these 12 patients are definitely in Q3. The question of follow-up, of course, is always when are the first patients treated. Again, we will have a follow-up data, of course, of these 12 patients. Speaker 200:27:50But realizing that some of these patients have recently be entered, the first follow-up will probably be like 3, 4, 5 months follow-up. Again, not due to the fact that we expect a lot of relapses, but simply patients have not been on treatment for longer. So if you want to have a real long term follow-up where patients have the chance to be a year or so on this protocol, This probably will more be towards the end of the year. Speaker 400:28:18Great. Thank you so much. Operator00:28:22Thank you. And our next question comes from Dana Graybosch with Leerink Partners. Your line is open. Speaker 500:28:30Yes. A question for me too on Luminize 203, Andres. I wonder if you could talk about what was driving the screen failures dropout? I just wonder if there's any implications of that for the type of patients that could be treated by this going forward? And yes, let's Speaker 200:28:51take that. Yes. That's a great question and we spent quite some time investigating what happened. I think there is still some training on the sites because physicians may have been over eagerly to enroll patients. So we had a couple of patients entered initially looked like they would fulfill all inclusion criteria. Speaker 200:29:17Then after review, we found out that, for example, one patient had no previous brentaximab treatment, One patient did not have a PD-one treatment. One patient had a documented allergic reaction to CD3 targeting treatment. Then we have seen a couple of patients, again these are very sick patients who acquired viral infections. I believe we had 2 patients with an intervening COVID infection that made them drop out. And in fact, we had 1 or 2 patients who are withdrawing informed consent when they considered significant commuting distances. Speaker 200:29:55Again, we only have like 10 sites open. So for some patients in the U. S, is still a very significant commuting involved to participate in this trial. With more training on the trial side, I think at least we will see a reduction in patients who are not fulfilling all inclusion criteria. With more sites active, we can reduce the commuting issues. Speaker 200:30:20I think the 3rd issue, patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma with 4 or 5 previous treatments are more prone to virus infections. So we may still see some patients who acquire intermittent comorbidities or intermittent diseases while in the screening period. Speaker 500:30:39Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you. Operator00:30:43Thank you. Our next question Speaker 600:30:56Just based on your insights into enrollment and guidance for having another data update on the first two cohorts in Q3, At this point, can you project when you think you'll complete the run-in phase and start the randomization phase? I guess, is there anything more on timelines that you're able to say about the study at this point? And then can you remind me if you need to go back to FDA to get feedback before you can start the randomized part of the study? Speaker 200:31:22Yes. So let's take the first the last question first. So we do not need to go back to FDA. FDA has approved the whole sequence of the study. So it's completely in our decision or up to our decision to progress into Stage 1, Stage 2 also at which point to open the cohort for peripheral T cell lymphomas. Speaker 200:31:50In terms of guidance, again, we have fully enrolled cohorts 12. And as I said, we expect to have the data of the initial 5 patients in terms of responses in Q3. And then we will give updates at our earnings calls. We also intend to submit these data to the scientific conference. For cohorts 34, we will do the projection once we are through the staggered period. Speaker 200:32:21Again, cohorts 34 have The first three patients per cohort staggered. This has been a little bit of an uncertainty in cohorts 12. So I think we'll have better guidance once we have completed the first six patients in Quarts 34. Speaker 600:32:38Okay. Understood. And just wondering if you can clarify if the data are a mix of cohorts 12? And at this point, do you have any view on how the 2 different dose cohorts are comparing as far as the dosing strategies go? Speaker 200:32:59Yes. Again, it's limited number of patients. We have equal representation of cohorts 1 and 2. I think we have 4 patients in 1 and 3 patients in 2. Up to this point, we did not see any differences. Speaker 200:33:13Both cohorts have contributed responses and complete responses. Interestingly, we also have not seen any differences in side effects. So the 200 milligram to 300 milligram, symptomatic dose are absolutely similar in terms of their side effect profile. Speaker 600:33:32Okay. Okay. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll hop back in the queue. Operator00:33:37Thank you. Our next question comes from Lee Watsik with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open. Speaker 700:33:45Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wonder if you can just comment on the number of cycles that these 7 patients being treated. And I know the protocol allows up to 3 cycles. So just wonder if you can give some information there. Speaker 200:34:06Yes. Currently, we basically have everything. So we have a couple of patients in the 2nd cycle. We have patients who are now going into cycle 3. We have a patient who is now going to stem cell transplant incomplete response. Speaker 200:34:23So it's a mixture of cycles. Importantly, the treatment has been very well tolerated. So we have not seen any treatment discontinuations due to side effects and all patients basically go as planned with their sequence of cycles. Speaker 700:34:41Okay. And then maybe a follow-up question for the patient baseline characteristics enrolled in the study versus the MD Anderson 104 study. Can you maybe just comment on prior lines of treatment and any response to most recent treatment for these patients. And I remember I think in the 104 study, we're looking at maybe 7 prior lines of treatment versus here 4. Maybe just talk a little bit about how should we think about patients enrolled? Speaker 200:35:25Yes. So here we have technically somewhat shorter number of or lower number of previous treatment lines, which I think is already reflecting what we expect to see also in the marketplace. I mean, patients before we published the MD Anderson data, they simply did not have any alternatives. So physicians were trying quite exotic things, which amounted to this high number of previous lines of therapy. Now with this very active treatment available, physicians start to refer earlier patients to this treatment option because they also feel that this is by far the best chance of patients who have failed chemotherapy, etcetera, at PD-one. Speaker 200:36:21So it's a good development, I think, because patients get to potentially life saving treatment earlier. It is good also in terms of market projection if we can establish this regimen in earlier lines of treatment. Importantly, the FDA was very clear on what defines a patient with unmet medical need, and that is failure of combination chemotherapy, failure to PD-one and failure to ADCETRIS. And all these patients fulfill the FDA required criteria for unmet medical need. Speaker 700:36:59Okay, great. Thank you. Operator00:37:05Thank you. And our next question comes from Yale Jen with Laidlaw and Company. Your line is open. Speaker 800:37:15Good morning and thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the progress. Just two quick ones here. The first one is for AFM-twenty eight, you guys are talking about seeking adding NK cell to the study. What's the current progress and what was the option being considered at this moment? Speaker 200:37:40Yes. We are in active process to identify an allogeneic and cryopreserved NK cell product. These are discussions. These are ongoing. So I cannot share a lot of details here, but I think we are on a very good way. Speaker 800:37:59Okay, great. Maybe one housekeeping question. We just noticed that for the last quarter, there's a $23,000,000 cash used that you guided at the guidance in terms of runway to the second half of next year. Should we for modeling purpose, should we consider the expense going forward for the next few quarters will be reduced more and that will be the DB projection. Would that be the projection? Speaker 800:38:29Thanks. Speaker 200:38:33I think that's a question I would hand over to Harry or Michael. Speaker 900:38:38No, I'm happy to answer this question. So the cash guidance into H2 2025 is based on operational financial plans. So one element contributing to that is a significantly lower spend. As a matter of fact, we spent in Q1 2023, EUR 10,000,000 more than in Q1 this year. So we do have reduced spend based on the fact that we only have half the personnel. Speaker 900:39:01We significantly reduced costs regarding lease expense, etcetera. So that's one contribution. The other one, it includes certain amounts or payments to be made, be it with business development or be it with other financing transactions. And we continue to tightly monitor our spending. And so that's how this guidance came along. Speaker 800:39:27Okay, great. That's very helpful. And thanks for taking the question. Speaker 900:39:30You're welcome. Operator00:39:34Thank you. And our next question comes from Brad Canino with Stifel. Your line is open. Speaker 1000:39:42Thank you. Just to double click on the dropouts question following Dana's question. I think the question when there are so many dropouts is always the potential for the results to have some form of bias from a selection of a narrow patient population and maybe those that are fitting up to wait as the enrollment process is being streamlined. It would be good to hear your view on whether or not this has occurred. And second, could you talk about your ongoing relationship with Artiva and both companies' commitments to the study as the program continues to advance now? Speaker 1000:40:16Thank you. Speaker 200:40:18Yes. So for the dropout, as I said, we have not seen any pattern. And importantly, I do not see any indication of a selection bias. Again, it's a very mixed bag of reasons. Some are logistics. Speaker 200:40:40My belief is that, that will be solved if we have even a broader geographic spread of participating sites. Some is that people were, I think, very enthusiastic and we see this enthusiasm on our investigator side to enroll the patient and some patients did not really fulfill all criteria for unmet medical need. As I said, we had patients who had not been pretreated with ADCETRIS. These patients are receiving ADCETRIS treatment now. They will have the option if they should fail ADCETRIS to go back into the study. Speaker 200:41:20We have a very clear defined population of patients, again, failing chemotherapy, failing PD-one, failing etcetera. And if they are transplant eligible, they should also have received a transplant before. And so this is something that FDA agreed upon as an area of complete unmet medical need, and we will stick very closely to this FDA guidance. But I do not see any selection bias or any enrichment of certain patients. In terms of our relationship with Arteva, they are as enthusiastic about the data as we are. Speaker 200:42:02We have good relationship. We have strong support from the Ertiva side to continue on this study and on this program. And so there's nothing else to report other than a real working relationship. Speaker 1000:42:18Great to hear the color. Thanks, Andres. Operator00:42:22Thank you. There are no further questions. This does conclude the Q and A session. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallAffimed Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K) Affimed Earnings HeadlinesStockNews.com Begins Coverage on Affimed (NASDAQ:AFMD)April 11 at 1:45 AM | americanbankingnews.comBrokerages Set Affimed (NASDAQ:AFMD) Target Price at $13.50April 6, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comAll Signs Point To Collapse - 401(k)s/IRAs /Are DoomedRetiring? Not so Fast..Hold Onto Your Bootstraps For A Long Road AheadApril 11, 2025 | American Hartford Gold (Ad)Affimed (NASDAQ:AFMD) Short Interest Down 14.9% in MarchApril 3, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comAffimed (NASDAQ:AFMD) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.comApril 2, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comAffimed Announces Acceptance of AFM24 Abstract on Dose Optimization for Presentation at American Association for Cancer Research Annual MeetingMarch 25, 2025 | globenewswire.comSee More Affimed Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Affimed? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Affimed and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About AffimedAffimed (NASDAQ:AFMD) N.V., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on discovering and developing cancer immunotherapies in the United States and Germany. The company's lead product candidates include AFM13 that has completed Phase 2 clinical trial for CD30-positive lymphoma, Phase Ib clinical trial for hodgkin lymphoma, and completed Phase IIb clinical study for peripheral T-cell lymphoma; AFM24, a tetravalent, bispecific epidermal growth factor receptor, and CD16A-binding innate cell engager, which is in Phase IIa clinical trial for the treatment of advanced cancers; and AFM28, an innate cell engager (ICE), which is in preclinical development for the treatment acute myeloid. It develops AFM32, an ICE candidate that is in preclinical development for the treatment of solid tumors. It has collaboration with Artiva Biotherapeutics to develop the combination of acimtamig and AlloNK; license and strategic collaboration agreement with Roivant Sciences Ltd. to develop and commercialize novel ICE molecules, including AFM32, in oncology; and strategic collaboration agreement with Genentech for the development of certain product candidates, which includes novel NK cell engager-based immunotherapeutics to treat multiple cancers. The company was formerly known as Affimed Therapeutics B.V. and changed its name to Affimed N.V. in October 2014. 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There are 11 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good day, everyone, and welcome to Affimed's First Quarter 20 24 Earnings and Corporate Update Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session and instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Alex Fedakis, Head of Investor Relations at Affimed. Operator00:00:22Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, Michel, and thank you all for joining us today for our Q1 2024 update call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we issued the relevant press release and presentation on our website today, which you can find in the Investor Relations section. On the call today, we have members of our management team, including Andreas Harstrick, our Chief Medical Officer and Acting Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Fischer, our Chief Operating Officer Denise Mueller, our Chief Business Officer and Harry Welkin, our Consulting Chief Financial Officer. Our financials today will be presented by our Vice President of Finance, Michael Wolff. The team will be available for Q and A after the prepared remarks. Speaker 100:01:10Before we start, I would like to remind you that today's presentation contains projections and forward looking statements regarding future events. These statements represent our beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this call. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward looking statements publicly or to update the reasons why actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the future in the forward looking statements even if new information becomes available in the future. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to various factors, including, but not limited to, those identified under the section entitled Risk Factors and our filings with the SEC and those identified under the section entitled Forward Looking Statements in the press release that we issued today and filed with the SEC. With that, I'll turn the call over to Andreas. Speaker 100:02:11Andreas? Speaker 200:02:14Yes. Thank you, Alex, and good day, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q1 2024 earnings call. I'm excited to share with you today clinical data on all three of our clinical programs that as we believe are validating our approach of using the innate immune system as an additional tool to fight cancer. When we announced the strategic reorganization of Affimed and our focus on the advancement of our clinical assets in January, we guided that our goal would be to generate meaningful data for all three programs in the first half of the year. I'm proud to say and thankful to all of my co workers at Rafimed and to all our clinical investigators that today we can deliver on this guidance. Speaker 200:03:13As shown on Slide 3, we now have clinical validation for all three assets. For AFM24, we are advancing the combination study with atiselizumab in treatment refractory patients with non small cell lung cancer, both in the EGFR wild type and in the EGFR mutant subgroups. Data that we shared at ASCO demonstrate durable responses in patients with EGFR wide type tumors with 3 or 4 responses ongoing now for over 7 months. We also see meaningful and confirmed tumor responses in the EGFR mutant subgroup, a tumor type that is generally considered unresponsive to immunotherapy. We can also share exciting data for our clinical LUMINIZE trial of asymptomatic in combination with ALLO and K cells in patients with refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma. Speaker 200:04:23Several patients have had their PT scans, meanwhile assessed by blinded independent read, which will be the primary endpoint of the study as agreed upon with FDA. In these patients, we see objective responses in 6 out of 7 patients for an overall response rate of 85.7%. Importantly, this includes 4 patients with a complete remission. Finally, AFM28, our CD123 targeting ICE for the treatment of refractory AML has shown remarkable clinical activity. At dose level 5 of our single agent dose escalation study, we have observed one complete response and 5 patients with stable disease. Speaker 200:05:19At dose level 6, we see 2 patients with a complete response and a CRI respectively and 3 patients with stable disease. Importantly, the complete response from dose level 5 is now ongoing and stable for more than 5 months, and 5 of the 6 patients at dose level 6 are continuing on treatment with a possibility for further deepening of their responses. Also importantly, no dose limiting toxicities were observed in dose level 56, thereby establishing a safe and effective regimen for further development. Let us look at the data in some more detail. Today, I will start with asymptomatic. Speaker 200:06:13As a reminder, on Slide 5, you see the trial design as agreed upon with FDA. We now have completed enrollments into cohorts 12 and are actively recruiting cohorts 34. We admit that there is still a slight delay in recruitment compared to our initial expectations as discussed on our last earnings call. This is mainly due to a higher rate of patient dropout during the screening period. However, with additional sites now active and more experience with the protocol at the site level, we expect to see further improvement in patient recruitment and a reduction in the dropout rate. Speaker 200:07:04In terms of safety shown on Slide 6, the adverse event profile is in line with our previous experience with asymptomatic and the combination of asymptomatic and allogeneic NK cells respectively. It is important to note that in the LUMINIe-two zero three study, we did not use steroids as part of the pre medication for asymptomatic and therefore, we were expecting a slightly higher rate of infusion related reactions compared to some studies with asymptomatic in which steroid pre medication was routinely used. 4 of 7 patients developed a Grade 1 or 2 infusion related reactionCRS event. 1 of these 4 patients had a short lasting Grade 3 CRS as assessed by the investigator, which manifested mainly by high fever and a decrease in blood pressure. However, the patient responded readily to standard of care treatment. Speaker 200:08:13Importantly, in this patient, shortly after this event, there was also an acute CMV infection diagnosed. And thus, the relative contribution of the infusion of asymptomatic versus acute CMV infection to the overall symptoms is not clear. Importantly, there were no treatment discontinuations due to side effects of asymptomatic or LONK. Also, there were no instances of bleeding, ICANS or graft versus host disease. As a clinical activity of the combination is, I think, remarkable as shown on Slide 7. Speaker 200:08:566 of 7 patients showed an objective response by independent read, including 4 patients with a complete remission. These data are directly comparable with the data that were reported by MD Anderson Cancer Center for asymptomatic in combination with fresh pre complexed NK cells. And thus indicate that co administration of an ICE with allogeneic NK cells is active, that no pre complexing is needed and that cryopreserved NK cells seem to be comparable to fresh NK cells in terms of antitumor activity. Also, these results demonstrate that data from the single site study at MD Anderson are reproducible in a multicenter setting as these 7 patients were enrolled by 4 different institutions. Slide 8 shows the patient's characteristics underscoring that these patients are heavily pretreated with a median of 4 lines of previous therapy. Speaker 200:10:07All patients had failed combination chemotherapy, PD-one targeting therapy and brentaximab. In addition, 5 of 7 patients had also failed after autologous stem cell transplant. On Slide 9, you see an example of a patient with multiple manifestations of his refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma, including axillary lymph nodes, supraclavicular lymph nodes, spleen and inguinal lymph nodes. The patient had failed all standard of care options, including stem cell transplant and presented with B symptoms, which clinically is a very unfavorable prognostic factor. As you can see, all tumor manifestations resolved after only one cycle of therapy. Speaker 200:10:58Let's move on to AFM24. Since we presented the data in detail during our ASCO presentation, I will be brief here. As shown on Slide 11, the combination of AFM24 and Atezolizumab has meaningful activity in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR white type non small cell lung cancer. In 15 evaluable patients, there were 4 objective responses and 8 patients with stable disease. Of note, all patients had failed combination chemotherapy and PD-one targeting therapy. Speaker 200:11:35All responders were documented progressive on previous anti PD-one treatment. Importantly, the responses and the tumor control induced by AFM24 Atezolizumab appear to be durable as shown on Slide 12, where you see the long term follow-up data. The progression free survival for the whole study population is 5.9 months, which compares favorable to the 4.5 months, which is usually achieved in these patients with standard of care treatment. Even more encouraging is the fact that 3 ml of C4 emissions are still ongoing now at more than 7, more than 8 and more than 9 months, respectively. It appears very unlikely that these data can be explained by atezolizumab activity alone. Speaker 200:12:29Even though there are occasional responses to PD-one rechallenge after intervening chemotherapy, PFS data in these patients have been very short. Even in PD-one non pretreated patients, in platinum refractory non small cell lung cancer, atezolizumab has shown a progression free survival interval of only 2.8 months. Our recent results in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer, as shown on Slide 13, supports the activity of the AFM24 atezolizumab combination. In 13 patients that are response evaluable, 4 responses and 6 patients with stable disease were achieved. Compared to the data that reported at ASCO, meanwhile, all objective responses have been confirmed by follow-up scans and all responses are ongoing. Speaker 200:13:29This is remarkable as EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer is in general regarded as unresponsive to immunotherapy. Slide 14 shows the market opportunity for drugs that are targeting refractory non small cell lung cancer. In the 7 major markets, there are 175,000 patients with EGFR wild type non small cell lung cancer and roughly 35,000 patients with EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer annually who fail standard of care therapy and will need additional treatment options. Current treatment options for these patients are unsatisfactory with PFS durations around 4 to 4.5 months. Also, many salvage regimens include chemotherapy that is often difficult to tolerate for this heavily pretreated patients. Speaker 200:14:28The combination of AFM24 plus PD-one could provide a chemotherapy free alternative with meaningful activity and significantly better tolerability for these patients. Finally, let's review the most recent data of AFM28. Our CD123 targeting ICE for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia as shown on Slide 16. Here we have escalated the dose through 6 cohorts up to 300 milligrams weekly. I think this study is also a good example of the ability of our organization to execute clinical studies. Speaker 200:15:13The first patient in this program was treated in March 2023 and the whole dose escalation trial over 6 cohorts was executed in only 15 months. The safety profile is shown on Slide 16. For dose levels 56, we did not see any dose limiting toxicities. The most frequent side effects were infusion related reactions, mainly of low grade. Only 3 patients had a grade 2 infusion related reaction, responding in all cases to symptomatic treatment and there were no Grade 3 or higher IRRs. Speaker 200:15:54One patient experienced a short limiting short lasting self limiting CRS of Grade 1. Infections are characteristic manifestations of acute leukemia and were seen in half of the patients. However, none of the infections was considered treatment related by the investigators. In addition, we observed meaningful target interaction at doses of 200 milligrams and above with nearly a complete saturation of CD123 binding sites on the tumors and occupation levels of CD16A on the NK cells that include preclinical experiments result in potent NK cell activation. The clinical activity is displayed on Slide 17. Speaker 200:16:41In dose level 5, we saw one complete response in 5 patients with stable disease. All patients were heavily pretreated. Of note, the complete remission is still ongoing after more than 5 months. In dose level 6, we saw 2 patients with a complete response in the CRI, respectively, and 3 patients with stable disease. Five patients from dose level 6 remain on treatment with additional cycles and thus with the option to deepen their responses. Speaker 200:17:16I think these results are remarkable. Most of these patients with advanced AML have very low numbers of own NK cells when they start treatment. So it appears that AML could be very sensitive to NK cell mediated killing if already low numbers of endogenous NK cells when directed to the leukemia cells by AFM28 can produce complete responses. These data taken together with the impressive activities that we have seen was a combination of asymptomatic and allogeneic NK cells in Hodgkin lymphoma support our strategic intent to pursue further development of AFM28 in association with a cryopreserved allogeneic and K cell product. With this, we would again address an area of significant unmet medical need. Speaker 200:18:17In the 7 major markets, we see over 14,000 patients per year, who fail at least two lines of standard therapy and require a new treatment option. Many of these patients are elderly and show frequent comorbidities, thus limiting the use of aggressive chemotherapy. Immunotherapy has not been successful so far in AML. The treatment approach based on the activation of the innate immune system could therefore be an important additional strategy for the treatment of these patients. With this, I will close the overview of our clinical programs and hand over to Michael Wolf for a review of our financial data. Speaker 200:19:04Michael, please. Speaker 300:19:06Thank you, Andreas. Balance sheet and income statement highlights are shown on Slide 20 21 of the presentation. A quick reminder that Akermint's consolidated financial statements has been prepared in accordance with IFRS as issued by the International Accounting Standard Board or IASP. The consolidated financial statements are prepared in euros. Since our financials are described in detail in the press release, issued this morning, I will only provide highlights on this call. Speaker 300:19:41We ended the Q1 with cash, cash equivalents and investments of €48,500,000 compared to €72,000,000 on December 31, 2023. Based on our current operating and financing plan, we anticipate that our liquidity will support operations into the second half of twenty twenty five. Net cash used in operating activities for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, was €23,800,000 compared to €33,200,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Total revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was €200,000 compared with €4,500,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Net loss for the quarter ended March 31, 2024 was €19,200,000 compared with a net loss of €32,000,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Speaker 300:20:45Now I'll turn the call back to Andreas for final remarks. Andreas? Speaker 200:20:51Yes. Thank you, Michael. For our concluding remarks, let's go to Slide 22. I think this has been a very exciting and very successful quarter for Affimed, in which we were able to obtain clinical validation of all three of our program. I think the strongest conclusion that we draw from this data today is consistency. Speaker 200:21:19When you see a single data set in one study in one particular disease setting, of course, you may always think, could this be a chance finding? But what we are demonstrating today is consistent activity signals across 3 different programs that are all designed to leverage the power of the innate immune system to fight cancer. We see this in 4 different indications and with 2 different combinations. Initial results from our asymptomatic and LONK program show remarkable activity, which seem to be on par with the data reported by MD Anderson. The difference is that we were able to generate these data with co administration of CICE and the NK cell and with cryopreserved off the shelf NK cells. Speaker 200:22:17Both factors that enable the use of this approach in the real world multicenter setting. For AML, we see that AFM28 can induce responses even in a setting where only very few NK cells are available to fight leukemia. I think it is very reasonable to expect a boost in activity if sufficient amounts of active allogeneic NK cells are added as we have shown in our LUMINI study. Therefore, we are actively exploring ways to continue the AFM28 program in combination with off the shelf allogeneic NK cells. And last but not least, we see consistent activity for the combination of AFM24 and atiselizumab, the strategy that utilizes the crosstalk between the adaptive and the innate immune system. Speaker 200:23:18When we started this program, I think there were a lot of doubts whether innate immune system could even attack solid tumors, given the largely immunosuppressive environment that is found in many solid tumors. Meanwhile, we have demonstrated objective and durable responses in heavily pretreated EGFR wide type and non small cell lung cancer patients with the longest response now ongoing for 10 months in patients with prior documented progression on PD-one targeting therapy. This data is supported by the observation of objective and confirmed responses in patients with heavily pretreated EGFR mutant non small cell lung cancer, a disease that historically has not been sensitive to immune mediated treatments. Of note, we see these results with a regimen that does not include any chemotherapy and thus may be better tolerated in this heavily pretreated patient population. I think the totality of the data reported today support our strong belief that the innate immune system can be utilized to fight multiple types of hematological and solid tumors and that Affimed's proprietary IC molecules can provide the necessary targeting and activation. Speaker 200:24:47As guided, we will have additional important data readouts in the course of the year. Afimed with its portfolio of several potent NK cell engagers and with its experienced and highly motivated clinical development organization is well suited to advance the use of the innate immune system as an additional treatment option for patients in need. We will continue our path to advance these exciting programs and thereby bring value to our organization, our patients and our shareholders. With this, I thank you all for your attention, I'm happy to take questions. Operator, please? Operator00:25:28Thank Our first question comes from Kripa Devarkanda with Tuohy Securities. Your line is open. Speaker 400:25:46Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my questions and congrats on all the progress across the three assets you have. So I have a question about Luminize. You talked you mentioned that cohorts 12 were enrolled. Our assumption is that that's 12 patients. Speaker 400:26:05We saw data from 7 patients today. I know you said you were going to see updates later. Just wanted to get clarification on the remaining 5 patients. Have they not reached the first scan, which if I remember correctly, 7 weeks? And when we see the next update, will we get durability data or have a sense of the longest duration of follow-up? Speaker 400:26:29Thank you. Speaker 200:26:32Yes. Thank you, Kripa, for your question. So first, your conclusion is right. We have included 12 patients in cohorts 12. So they are filled. Speaker 200:26:40We are actively recruiting cohorts 34 now. The reason why we have not shown the data of the remaining 5 patients simply as we mentioned that we initially had a certain delay in recruitment. So these patients are in the middle of their treatment, their first cycle. As you rightfully say, we have our first assessment on roughly week 7, week 8. Now what we also reported today is that we want all PET CT scans to be evaluated by blinded independent read, which is the FDA prescribed final endpoint. Speaker 200:27:20So we wanted to make sure that data will really be consistent with the data sets that may go to FDA. This may add another 2 to 3 weeks before you have your independent final readout data. So we will have the data of these 12 patients are definitely in Q3. The question of follow-up, of course, is always when are the first patients treated. Again, we will have a follow-up data, of course, of these 12 patients. Speaker 200:27:50But realizing that some of these patients have recently be entered, the first follow-up will probably be like 3, 4, 5 months follow-up. Again, not due to the fact that we expect a lot of relapses, but simply patients have not been on treatment for longer. So if you want to have a real long term follow-up where patients have the chance to be a year or so on this protocol, This probably will more be towards the end of the year. Speaker 400:28:18Great. Thank you so much. Operator00:28:22Thank you. And our next question comes from Dana Graybosch with Leerink Partners. Your line is open. Speaker 500:28:30Yes. A question for me too on Luminize 203, Andres. I wonder if you could talk about what was driving the screen failures dropout? I just wonder if there's any implications of that for the type of patients that could be treated by this going forward? And yes, let's Speaker 200:28:51take that. Yes. That's a great question and we spent quite some time investigating what happened. I think there is still some training on the sites because physicians may have been over eagerly to enroll patients. So we had a couple of patients entered initially looked like they would fulfill all inclusion criteria. Speaker 200:29:17Then after review, we found out that, for example, one patient had no previous brentaximab treatment, One patient did not have a PD-one treatment. One patient had a documented allergic reaction to CD3 targeting treatment. Then we have seen a couple of patients, again these are very sick patients who acquired viral infections. I believe we had 2 patients with an intervening COVID infection that made them drop out. And in fact, we had 1 or 2 patients who are withdrawing informed consent when they considered significant commuting distances. Speaker 200:29:55Again, we only have like 10 sites open. So for some patients in the U. S, is still a very significant commuting involved to participate in this trial. With more training on the trial side, I think at least we will see a reduction in patients who are not fulfilling all inclusion criteria. With more sites active, we can reduce the commuting issues. Speaker 200:30:20I think the 3rd issue, patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma with 4 or 5 previous treatments are more prone to virus infections. So we may still see some patients who acquire intermittent comorbidities or intermittent diseases while in the screening period. Speaker 500:30:39Perfect. That's very helpful. Thank you. Operator00:30:43Thank you. Our next question Speaker 600:30:56Just based on your insights into enrollment and guidance for having another data update on the first two cohorts in Q3, At this point, can you project when you think you'll complete the run-in phase and start the randomization phase? I guess, is there anything more on timelines that you're able to say about the study at this point? And then can you remind me if you need to go back to FDA to get feedback before you can start the randomized part of the study? Speaker 200:31:22Yes. So let's take the first the last question first. So we do not need to go back to FDA. FDA has approved the whole sequence of the study. So it's completely in our decision or up to our decision to progress into Stage 1, Stage 2 also at which point to open the cohort for peripheral T cell lymphomas. Speaker 200:31:50In terms of guidance, again, we have fully enrolled cohorts 12. And as I said, we expect to have the data of the initial 5 patients in terms of responses in Q3. And then we will give updates at our earnings calls. We also intend to submit these data to the scientific conference. For cohorts 34, we will do the projection once we are through the staggered period. Speaker 200:32:21Again, cohorts 34 have The first three patients per cohort staggered. This has been a little bit of an uncertainty in cohorts 12. So I think we'll have better guidance once we have completed the first six patients in Quarts 34. Speaker 600:32:38Okay. Understood. And just wondering if you can clarify if the data are a mix of cohorts 12? And at this point, do you have any view on how the 2 different dose cohorts are comparing as far as the dosing strategies go? Speaker 200:32:59Yes. Again, it's limited number of patients. We have equal representation of cohorts 1 and 2. I think we have 4 patients in 1 and 3 patients in 2. Up to this point, we did not see any differences. Speaker 200:33:13Both cohorts have contributed responses and complete responses. Interestingly, we also have not seen any differences in side effects. So the 200 milligram to 300 milligram, symptomatic dose are absolutely similar in terms of their side effect profile. Speaker 600:33:32Okay. Okay. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll hop back in the queue. Operator00:33:37Thank you. Our next question comes from Lee Watsik with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open. Speaker 700:33:45Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I wonder if you can just comment on the number of cycles that these 7 patients being treated. And I know the protocol allows up to 3 cycles. So just wonder if you can give some information there. Speaker 200:34:06Yes. Currently, we basically have everything. So we have a couple of patients in the 2nd cycle. We have patients who are now going into cycle 3. We have a patient who is now going to stem cell transplant incomplete response. Speaker 200:34:23So it's a mixture of cycles. Importantly, the treatment has been very well tolerated. So we have not seen any treatment discontinuations due to side effects and all patients basically go as planned with their sequence of cycles. Speaker 700:34:41Okay. And then maybe a follow-up question for the patient baseline characteristics enrolled in the study versus the MD Anderson 104 study. Can you maybe just comment on prior lines of treatment and any response to most recent treatment for these patients. And I remember I think in the 104 study, we're looking at maybe 7 prior lines of treatment versus here 4. Maybe just talk a little bit about how should we think about patients enrolled? Speaker 200:35:25Yes. So here we have technically somewhat shorter number of or lower number of previous treatment lines, which I think is already reflecting what we expect to see also in the marketplace. I mean, patients before we published the MD Anderson data, they simply did not have any alternatives. So physicians were trying quite exotic things, which amounted to this high number of previous lines of therapy. Now with this very active treatment available, physicians start to refer earlier patients to this treatment option because they also feel that this is by far the best chance of patients who have failed chemotherapy, etcetera, at PD-one. Speaker 200:36:21So it's a good development, I think, because patients get to potentially life saving treatment earlier. It is good also in terms of market projection if we can establish this regimen in earlier lines of treatment. Importantly, the FDA was very clear on what defines a patient with unmet medical need, and that is failure of combination chemotherapy, failure to PD-one and failure to ADCETRIS. And all these patients fulfill the FDA required criteria for unmet medical need. Speaker 700:36:59Okay, great. Thank you. Operator00:37:05Thank you. And our next question comes from Yale Jen with Laidlaw and Company. Your line is open. Speaker 800:37:15Good morning and thanks for taking the questions and congrats on the progress. Just two quick ones here. The first one is for AFM-twenty eight, you guys are talking about seeking adding NK cell to the study. What's the current progress and what was the option being considered at this moment? Speaker 200:37:40Yes. We are in active process to identify an allogeneic and cryopreserved NK cell product. These are discussions. These are ongoing. So I cannot share a lot of details here, but I think we are on a very good way. Speaker 800:37:59Okay, great. Maybe one housekeeping question. We just noticed that for the last quarter, there's a $23,000,000 cash used that you guided at the guidance in terms of runway to the second half of next year. Should we for modeling purpose, should we consider the expense going forward for the next few quarters will be reduced more and that will be the DB projection. Would that be the projection? Speaker 800:38:29Thanks. Speaker 200:38:33I think that's a question I would hand over to Harry or Michael. Speaker 900:38:38No, I'm happy to answer this question. So the cash guidance into H2 2025 is based on operational financial plans. So one element contributing to that is a significantly lower spend. As a matter of fact, we spent in Q1 2023, EUR 10,000,000 more than in Q1 this year. So we do have reduced spend based on the fact that we only have half the personnel. Speaker 900:39:01We significantly reduced costs regarding lease expense, etcetera. So that's one contribution. The other one, it includes certain amounts or payments to be made, be it with business development or be it with other financing transactions. And we continue to tightly monitor our spending. And so that's how this guidance came along. Speaker 800:39:27Okay, great. That's very helpful. And thanks for taking the question. Speaker 900:39:30You're welcome. Operator00:39:34Thank you. And our next question comes from Brad Canino with Stifel. Your line is open. Speaker 1000:39:42Thank you. Just to double click on the dropouts question following Dana's question. I think the question when there are so many dropouts is always the potential for the results to have some form of bias from a selection of a narrow patient population and maybe those that are fitting up to wait as the enrollment process is being streamlined. It would be good to hear your view on whether or not this has occurred. And second, could you talk about your ongoing relationship with Artiva and both companies' commitments to the study as the program continues to advance now? Speaker 1000:40:16Thank you. Speaker 200:40:18Yes. So for the dropout, as I said, we have not seen any pattern. And importantly, I do not see any indication of a selection bias. Again, it's a very mixed bag of reasons. Some are logistics. Speaker 200:40:40My belief is that, that will be solved if we have even a broader geographic spread of participating sites. Some is that people were, I think, very enthusiastic and we see this enthusiasm on our investigator side to enroll the patient and some patients did not really fulfill all criteria for unmet medical need. As I said, we had patients who had not been pretreated with ADCETRIS. These patients are receiving ADCETRIS treatment now. They will have the option if they should fail ADCETRIS to go back into the study. Speaker 200:41:20We have a very clear defined population of patients, again, failing chemotherapy, failing PD-one, failing etcetera. And if they are transplant eligible, they should also have received a transplant before. And so this is something that FDA agreed upon as an area of complete unmet medical need, and we will stick very closely to this FDA guidance. But I do not see any selection bias or any enrichment of certain patients. In terms of our relationship with Arteva, they are as enthusiastic about the data as we are. Speaker 200:42:02We have good relationship. We have strong support from the Ertiva side to continue on this study and on this program. And so there's nothing else to report other than a real working relationship. Speaker 1000:42:18Great to hear the color. Thanks, Andres. Operator00:42:22Thank you. There are no further questions. This does conclude the Q and A session. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by