NNV024, a novel humanized anti-CD37 antibody with enhanced ADCC and prolonged plasma half-life in human FcRn transgenic mice for treatment of NHL

Abstract There is an unmet medical need for new therapeutic approaches and targets for patients with non- Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who relapse or are refractory to anti-CD20 immunotherapy. Therefore, we developed a humanized IgG 1 antibody targeting CD37, which was tailored to be afucosylated for enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) (NNV024). In line with this, NNV024 induced three-fold more potent ADCC activity against patient-derived chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells compared with anti-CD20 obinutuzumab. Moreover, NNV024 showed 2-fold higher ADCC activity than anti-CD20 rituximab and a recombinant version of DuoHexaBody-CD37 against both NHL and CLL cells. Survival was significantly longer after NNV024 treatment than with obinutuzumab in a mouse model. In addition, NNV024 showed a favourable plasma half-life in human FcRn transgenic mice of about 9-days, which was 2-fold longer than that of obinutuzumab and DuoHexaBody-CD37. These results warrant the further development of NNV024 as a treatment for NHL.