Nkarta Announces Q1 2024 Financial Results and Corporate Highlights

Nkarta, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, reported its financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2024. Nkarta specializes in the development of engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies. The company's President and CEO, Paul J. Hastings, highlighted the potential of cell therapy in transforming treatments for autoimmune diseases. He emphasized that NKX019, an off-the-shelf, targeted NK-cell product, could address infrastructure and safety challenges, thereby improving patient access.

NKX019 is an allogeneic, off-the-shelf cell therapy candidate that uses NK cells from healthy donors. These cells are engineered to target the B-cell antigen CD19, making them suitable for patients with B-cell mediated diseases. The Phase 1 multi-center, dose-escalation clinical trial will evaluate the safety and clinical activity of NKX019 in patients with refractory lupus nephritis (LN). Patients in the trial will receive a three-dose cycle of NKX019 following single-agent lymphodepletion with cyclophosphamide, a drug with an established safety profile in systemic lupus erythematosus and LN. The Investigational New Drug (IND) application for LN was cleared in the fourth quarter of 2023. Translational data suggest that NKX019 has the potential to reset the immune system by effectively killing B cells from patients with autoimmune diseases and promoting the recovery of predominantly naïve B cells after treatment.

Nkarta is expected to provide an update on the first patient dosing for NKX019 in LN in the first half of 2024. The announcement will also outline plans for evaluating NKX019 in other autoimmune diseases.

In the realm of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), Nkarta reported promising results in January 2024. Four out of four patients with relapsed/refractory NHL, who had relapsed after achieving complete response (CR) following treatment with NKX019, were able to achieve CR again after re-treatment with NKX019. This suggests that relapses may be due to the mechanisms of NKX019 exposure rather than resistance to the therapy. In the Phase 1 study for relapsed/refractory NHL, patients receive NKX019 doses on Days 0, 3, and 7 following lymphodepletion with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide. This compressed dosing regimen aims to intensify the exposure of NKX019 by dosing closer to lymphodepletion. Additionally, patients with ongoing cytopenias may receive NKX019 following lymphodepletion with cyclophosphamide alone. Preliminary data from the NKX019 compressed dosing cohort is expected to be announced in mid-2024.

In March 2024, Nkarta completed an underwritten offering of common stock and pre-funded warrants, raising $240.1 million in gross proceeds. Both new and existing investors participated in this offering.

Financially, Nkarta reported a cash balance of $450.0 million as of March 31, 2024, which includes cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities. Research and development expenses for the first quarter of 2024 were $25.2 million, including $2.2 million in non-cash stock-based compensation expenses. General and administrative expenses were $7.5 million, also including $2.2 million in non-cash stock-based compensation. The net loss for the first quarter of 2024 was $29.5 million, or $0.58 per basic and diluted share, which includes non-cash charges of $5.6 million primarily for share-based compensation and depreciation expenses.

Nkarta anticipates that its current cash and cash equivalents will be sufficient to fund operations into late 2027.

Nkarta is committed to advancing the development of allogeneic, off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell therapies. By combining cell expansion and cryopreservation platforms with proprietary cell engineering technologies and CRISPR-based genome engineering capabilities, Nkarta aims to build a pipeline of future cell therapies designed for deep therapeutic activity and broad access in outpatient treatment settings.