NantKwest Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the company’s Investigational New Drug Application (IND) for its first-in-human, high-affinity natural killer (haNK) cell therapy Phase I clinical study. The company plans to promptly initiate this trial, which is believed to be the first ever clinical evaluation of a genetically engineered, allogenic, off-the-shelf, natural killer cell for the treatment of patients with cancer. NantKwest’s haNK cell therapy platform, developed to be an allogeneic, off-the-shelf therapy, is focused on optimizing the key role that natural killer cells play in mediating innate immunity, enhancing adaptive immune responses, and, specifically in the case of haNK, improving anti-tumor responses via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC).