XNK Therapeutics 

What is your business concept? What problem are you out to solve?

“Our goal is to help cancer patients live longer. XNK Therapeutics was founded in 2012 and is one of the pioneers in cell therapy and we focus on cancer treatment by developing new cell-based treatments with autologous natural killer (NK) cells.”

“We have an innovative and world-leading platform technology that gives us a prominent position in autologous NK cell therapies,” says Johan Liwing, CEO of XNK Therapeutics.

Where are you now?

“We have established a leading position in the field of autologous NK cell therapies. This summer, the first patient was recruited for an investigator-initiated Phase II clinical trial in which our leading drug candidate is combined with Sanofi’s anti-CD38 antibody Sarclisa (Isatuximab), to treat multiple myeloma, a serious cancer. The study is being carried out at Karolinska University Hospital in Flemingsberg with Hareth Nahi at the helm as the main examiner, through our close collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, and Vecura, which contributes infrastructure for clinical regenerative medicine.”

“During the past year, we have grown from a company of two to 19 people. Today we have a very good management team including, among others, Michael Uhlin as Chief Scientific Officer and Johan Aschan as Chief Medical Officer. We are well placed to further accelerate our development with the goal of maintaining a world-leading position.”

What are your plans for the future?

“Our current focus is primarily on bringing our drug candidate for the treatment of multiple myeloma to the market. Then we want to broaden our platform to include more cancers.”

“We recently started the construction of a new GMP facility with an associated research laboratory of 350 square meters for our NK cell therapy. The new facility is being built at Novum in Flemingsberg and, once the facility is completed in 2022, it will give us complete control over the entire development chain.”

Why are you in Flemingsberg?

“Flemingsberg is the place in the world you want to be if you work with NK cells. There is a strong research facility here with a world-leading research group and proximity to a clinic that really knows NK cells.”

“Up to now our production has been at Vecura in Flemingsberg, which is one of the country’s leading production units for advanced therapy drugs and cells for transplantation. When we move to our own, new facility, we will be able to further increase our research and development capacity. In short, there is everything we need in Flemingsberg – there is nowhere like it elsewhere in the world.”