Affimed’s stock tanks as company announces termination of cancer program

Affimed NV (NASDAQ: AFMD) reported first-quarter 2019 earnings results and announced its plans to terminate its cancer program while focusing its R&D resources on its immunity portfolio. Shares plummeted 9.6% in premarket hours on Wednesday.

Total revenue grew to EUR11.4 million from EUR0.5 million in the same period last year, mainly due to the recognition of EUR10.6 million as revenue from the Genentech collaboration.

The company reported a net income of EUR1.9 million, or EUR0.03 per common share, compared to a net loss of EUR8.2 million, or EUR0.15 per common share, for the year-ago period. Net income was primarily related to significantly increased revenue, partially offset by higher R&D and G&A expenses.

R&D expenses rose to EUR8 million from EUR6.4 million last year, mainly driven by higher expenses related to clinical study startup activities for AFM13, as well as early stage development and discovery activities.

Affimed announced its plan to focus its R&D efforts on the clinical trials for its innate cell engager candidates, AFM13 and AFM24. As part of this plan, the company decided to terminate the Phase 1 clinical program of its T cell engager AFM11.  

“We are focused on advancing our CD16A-targeting innate cell engager product candidates as we progress through 2019, with the goals of initiating a market registration-directed study of AFM13 and entering the clinic with AFM24,” said CEO Dr. Adi Hoess in a statement.

During the quarter, Affimed received a milestone payment from Genentech as part of its research collaboration to develop and commercialize novel natural killer (NK) cell engager-based immunotherapeutics based on Affimed’s ROCK platform to treat multiple cancers.

Affimed also stated that Dr. Martin Treder intends to step down as Chief Scientific Officer in order to pursue new opportunities but will continue to serve as a consultant.

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