Roquefort Therapeutics (ROQ) , an oncology-focused biotech company, announced a significant milestone in its Mesodermal killer (MK) cell programme.
Announced in September 2002, Roquefort's proprietary MK cells technology represents a novel class of cellular medicine. MK cells kill cancer cells directly, but their more profound effect is the activation of "natural killer" or NK cells to increase cytotoxicity.
Both functions - the direct killing of cancer cells and activation of NK cells - have been demonstrated in validated in vivo models of lymphoma and myeloma.
In the most recent results announced today, MK cells were tested in combination with NK cells and showed: 1) the activation of NK cells and 2) that this activation produced an up to 2x increase in cytotoxicity over NK cells alone in 3 different cancers: ovarian cancer (P<0.01), acute myeloid leukemia (P<0.05), and multiple myeloma (P<0.01).
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An excellent set of results from Roquefort, demonstrating the effectiveness of its MK cell programme with a statistically significant result in 3 difficult to treat cancers. The tests showed the activation of NK cells and resulting increased cytotoxicity to cancer cells by up to 2x. Markets welcomed the news, sending ROQ shares 7.4% higher on Monday.
The demonstration in multiple cancer types, including solid tumors, lymphomas and leukemia, is a significant commercial milestone because NK cell activation is a highly attractive modality for large pharma companies. Recent transactions in this market include the US$1.4bn partnership between Sanofi and Innate Pharma, and >US$300m Gilead and Dragonfly Therapeutics transaction for Innate and Dragonfly's proprietary activators of NK cells.f
Today's results build on excellent progress Roquefort reported recently on its siRNA and Midkine programmes. The company says it is in discussions with potential partners from Big Pharma and private equity. Markets will be looking forward to further in vivo studies of Roquefort's MK cell programme with results expected in the coming months.
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