Press Release - October 14, 2015
Heidelberg, Germany, October 14, 2015 – Affimed N.V. (Nasdaq: AFMD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies, today announced that an existing shareholder has increased its position in the Company by purchasing 3.3 million shares. The Agreement was signed on Oct. 9, 2015 and will lead to an investment of $21.8 million (€ 19.2 million).
“This investment will help to ensure that Affimed is well positioned to achieve our goals and thereby create value for our shareholders,” said Florian Fischer, Ph.D., CFO of Affimed. “We are grateful for this renewed long-term commitment, which is an important validation of our unique NK- and T-cell approaches via our proprietary bispecific TandAb technology.”
Affimed has leveraged its expertise in next-generation bi- and trispecific antibodies to build a pipeline of unencumbered clinical and preclinical assets. Affimed’s lead candidate, AFM13, a bispecific CD30/CD16A TandAb currently in Phase 2 development for Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL), has already shown signs of therapeutic activity as monotherapy after only four weeks of treatment in difficult-to-treat (salvage) patients. In addition, AFM13 has shown potential for synergistic efficacy in combination with checkpoint inhibitors in preclinical studies, where tumors shrank by up to approximately 90%. The Company’s second clinical candidate, AFM11, a bispecific CD19/CD3 TandAb antibody, is currently in Phase 1 in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL). The additional capital secured through the existing investor’s increased position will support continued development of AFM13 and AFM11, as well as earlier-stage programs such as the EGFRvIII/CD3-targeting T-cell TandAb AFM21 and additional NK-cell engagers.
Affimed (Nasdaq: AFMD) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies. Affimed’s product candidates are being developed in the field of immuno-oncology, which represents an innovative approach to cancer treatment that seeks to harness the body’s own immune defenses to fight tumor cells. The most potent cells of the human defense arsenal are types of white blood cells called natural killer cells, or NK-cells, and T-cells. Affimed’s proprietary, next-generation bispecific antibodies, called TandAbs for their tandem antibody structure, are designed to direct and establish a bridge between either NK-cells or T-cells and cancer cells, triggering a signal cascade that leads to the destruction of cancer cells. Affimed has focused its research and development efforts on three proprietary TandAb programs for which it retains global commercial rights. For more information, please visit www.affimed.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to", "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements appear in a number of places throughout this release and include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses and current expectations concerning, among other things, our ongoing and planned preclinical development and clinical trials, our collaborations and development of our products in combination with other therapies, the timing of and our ability to make regulatory filings and obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our product candidates our intellectual property position, our collaboration activities, our ability to develop commercial functions, expectations regarding clinical trial data, our results of operations, cash needs, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, future transactions, growth and strategies, the industry in which we operate, the trends that may affect the industry or us and the risks uncertainties and other factors described under the heading “Risk Factors” in Affimed’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.
Caroline Stewart, Head IR & Communication
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Anca Alexandru or Gretchen Schweitzer
MacDougall Biomedical Communications
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