Nkarta, Inc. NKTX

We are a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of allogeneic, off-the-shelf engineered natural killer ("NK") cell therapies. Our company was founded on the belief that engineered NK cell therapies can transform the lives of patients by offering therapies that are clinically meaningful, broadly accessible and unencumbered by the safety concerns often associated with other cell therapy approaches. Our lead pipeline program is NKX019, a chimeric antigen receptor-natural killer ("CAR NK") product candidate targeting the CD19 antigen for the treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases. Our CAR NK platform enables an on-demand, off-the-shelf approach involving scaled manufacturing to broaden patient access. We have developed proprietary technologies designed to generate an abundant supply of NK cells, increase NK cell recognition of target antigens, and enhance NK cell fitness to support scalable, off the shelf administration. NKX019 is allogeneic, which means it is produced using cells from a different person than the patient(s) being treated, and it is produced in quantity, then frozen and therefore available for treating patients without delay, unlike autologous cell therapies, which are derived from a patient's own cells and must be manufactured as needed for each patient. We believe that engineered NK cells have the potential to be effective and accessible therapies for autoimmune diseases and other diseases, be well tolerated, and avoid some of the toxicities observed with other cell therapies.