April 21, 2022 -- Artiva Biotherapeutics entered into an agreement with Merck to evaluate the therapeutic potential of Artiva's clinical-grade AB-101 natural killer (NK) cells from its AlloNK platform for assessment in combination with tri-specific NK-cell engager candidates.
The collaboration leverages Artiva's off-the-shelf allogeneic NK cell manufacturing platform, along with its proprietary CAR-NK technology, and includes two CAR-NK programs.
The companies entered into a collaboration and exclusive license agreement in January 2021 for the CAR-NK cells' discovery, development, manufacture, and commercialization. Artiva supports large-scale production and cryopreservation of off-the-shelf allogeneic NK and CAR-NK therapeutics.
No financial details were disclosed.