NEW YORK and BASEL, Switzerland, Nov. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Affivant, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel immune-oncology approaches to activate and enable the innate immune system to fight cancer, will present a poster at the 37^th Annual Meeting of The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) highlighting preclinical data for AFVT-2101 (previously AFM32).

AFVT-2101 is a tetravalent, bispecific Innate Cell Engager (ICE^®) that bridges folate receptor alpha (FRα) on tumor cells with CD16A expressing innate immune cells, to induce potent and selective targeted tumor cell killing. FRα is a tumor-associated antigen which is highly overexpressed on a variety of epithelial tumors.

The following poster will be presented live at SITC on November 11^th:

Title: AFVT-2101, an innate immune-cell engager that selectively targets FOLR1 expressing tumor cells to safely harness potent anti-cancer responses

Poster #: 1212

Authors: Ahmad Trad, Michael Tomaszowski, Josef Caslavsky, Robert Freitag, Sudhir Penugonda, Keith Haan, Markus Rohrwild, Daniel O'Shannessy, Jana Siegler, Peter Sandy, Eric Gaukel, Daniela Penston, Zoë Johnson

The poster shows that AFVT-2101 binds selectively to CD16A (both 158V and 158F variants). Physiological levels of competing IgG do not alter binding efficacy. AFVT-2101 induces potent and selective ADCC, even on FRα low expressing cell lines. AFVT-2101 is also shown to induce efficient ADCP in vitro. Co-culture of PBMCs, tumor cells and AFVT-2101 showed concentration-dependent release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IFNγ, IP-10, TNFα) and minimal off-target cytokine release, confirming a potent but safe in vitro profile of AFVT-2101.

About ICE molecules

Innate Cell Engager (ICE^®) molecules are designed to bivalently bind CD16A+ cells of the innate immune system and a tumor associated antigen, inducing potent, tumor-directed cytotoxicity via antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP).

About Affivant

Affivant, a Roivant Sciences company, is dedicated to developing novel immune-oncology approaches to activate and enable the innate immune system to fight cancer. Our innovative bi-specific innate cell engagers are designed to target specific patient populations as powerful monotherapies and combination treatments. AFVT-2101 is currently in IND-enabling studies.

For more information, visit .

Contact:

Zoë Johnson, Chief Scientific Officer
zoe.johnson@affivant.com