The collaboration is funded through a $9.5 million 2020 U.S. coronavirus relief bill from ARMI's BioFabUSA program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense. The funds will support a Kiadis sponsored phase I/IIA clinical trial to evaluate K-NK-ID101 in COVID-19 and the scale up of good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing. Kiadis will also collaborate with ARMI to establish large-scale manufacturing capacity for the candidate in the U.S. that can support industrialization of the K-NK cell therapy.

Pluristyx will provide chemistry, manufacturing, and controls support for the manufacture and scale-up of the product. Pluristyx will also lead in development of cryopreservation processes, preform proof-of-concept studies to enable scale-up for commercial manufacturing, and assist ARMI in establishing their large-scale manufacturing capacity.

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