ImmunityBio higher after early-stage trial results for cell therapy in lymphoma

Shares of ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) traded higher on Wednesday after the immunotherapy developer disclosed early-stage trial results for its natural killer cell therapy candidate in patients with a form of lymphoma.

Citing early data from its Phase 1 QUILT-106 trial, the company said that the first two patients with late-stage Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM)—a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)—who received its CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy experienced complete responses.

The open-label study is designed to evaluate IBRX's cell therapy in certain types of NHL as a single agent and with rituximab, an antibody medicine marketed by Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) and Biogen (BIIB) as Rituxan for lymphoma and other conditions.

One patient developed CR after receiving CD19 CAR-NK cell therapy as a single agent, and the other patient received it in combination with rituximab.

Both were heavily pretreated, but they well tolerated the experimental therapy with no significant toxicities, ImmunityBio (NASDAQ:IBRX) said. The company has recruited a third patient with WM for the study.