Aptevo Therapeutics’ Bispecific Antibody APVO436 Shows Robust T-Cell Activation With Minimal Cytokine Release

Aptevo Therapeutics (Nasdaq:APVO), a biotechnology company focused on developing novel oncology and hematology therapeutics, today announced the presentation of new data for APVO436, a bispecific antibody candidate targeting CD123 and CD3, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2018 Annual Meeting. The preclinical data demonstrate potent T-cell cytotoxicity of tumors expressing CD123 with limited cytokine release and suggest that APVO436 has the potential for increased clinical benefit and a favorable safety profile.

As quoted in the press release:

Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is a significant concern with T-cell activating therapies and has been associated with severe complications in clinical trials.  Aptevo has previously published data on its first generation candidate, APVO414, showing reduced cytokine release upon T-cell engagement compared to another bispecific format (Mol Cancer Ther. 2016 Sep; 15(9); 2155-65).

New preclinical data presented at this year’s AACR Annual Meeting compare Aptevo’s second generation bispecific, APVO436, with an Aptevo-generated version of Macrogenics’ CD123 x CD3 dual-affinity re-targeting (DART) molecule, MGD006, evaluating T-cell activation, proliferation, cytotoxicity and cytokine secretion.

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