our product candidates. Our profitability depends on the successful development, approval and commercialization of our product candidates and our ability to achieve a level of revenues adequate to support our cost structure. We may never achieve profitability and unless and until we do, we will continue to need to raise additional cash. We intend to fund future operations through additional equity and debt financings and we may seek additional capital through arrangements with strategic partners or from other sources. See Note 2, Basis of preparation and changes to Group’s accounting policies, Going concern, in the notes to the interim financial statements.
We have one U.S. subsidiary, Affimed Inc., with senior employees in investor relations, business development, corporate strategy, communication and medical/clinical operations.
Recent Developments
In January 2024, we initiated a strategic restructuring of our operations to focus on our three clinical stage development programs. As a result of the restructuring, we initiated a reduction of our full-time equivalent headcount by approximately 50%. We incurred a one-time cash expenditure for termination payments of approximately €1.6 million. Further, the financial impact from the selling of laboratory equipment resulted in an impairment of €1.6 million in the six months ended June 30, 2024.
On March 6, 2024, we announced a 1-for-10 reverse stock split of our outstanding common shares, effective after market close on March 8, 2024.
Further, in May 2024, the FDA granted a Fast Track designation to the combination of our innate cell engager (ICE®) AFM24 with atezolizumab for the treatment of patients with advanced and/or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC”) epidermal growth factor receptor (“EGFR”)-wildtype (“wt”) after progression on PD-(L)1 targeted therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy. Fast Track is a process designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of new drugs that are intended to treat or prevent serious conditions and have the potential to address an unmet medical need.
On September 3, 2024, we announced that Shawn M. Leland, PharmD, RPh has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Andreas Harstrick, who has been serving as acting CEO since January 2024 will continue in his position as Chief Medical Officer.
On September 5, 2024, we announced a AFM24-102 phase 2 study update from the EGFR mutant (“EGFRmut”) cohort. 24 heavily pretreated EGFRmut NSCLC patients are in the trial and of 17 patients that are response evaluable per protocol 1 CR, 3 PRs and 8 SDs were observed. All responses have been confirmed by follow up scan. Median follow-up is more than 7 months and 8 out of the 17 patients continue on treatment. All 4 responders remained on treatment for at least 7 months. Final PFS data from the EGFRmut cohort is expected in H1 2025. The EGFRwt NSCLC cohort for patients who failed chemotherapy and PD-1/PD-L1 has continued enrollment with 40 patients on trial. Data readout for this cohort is expected in Q4 2024.
On September 5, 2024, we announced a data update from the LuminICE-203 study (acimtamig/AlloNK® co-administered combination therapy in relapsed/refractory (“R/R”) Hodgkin lymphoma (“HL”). The recruitment in cohorts 1 and 2 is completed and for the 12 treated refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) patients, an objective response rate (ORR) of 83.3% with 6 complete responses (CRs) and 4 partial responses (PRs) were observed by independent read. Treatment related adverse events were consistent with previous experience and side effects related to acimtamig and AlloNK were well manageable with standard of care treatment.
On September 5, 2024, we further announced a data update from the multi-center Phase 1 open-label, dose-escalation study (AFM28-101), of AFM28 monotherapy in CD123-positive R/R AML. Of 6 patients treated at dose level 6 at 300 mg, 1 patient showed a CR, 2 patients a CRi and 2 patients achieved SD. As previously announced in June 2024, at dose level 5 at 250 mg, out of 6 patients 1 patient showed a CR, lasting 6 months. The other 5 patients reached a stable disease as best response. No dose-limiting toxicities were reported in dose levels 5 and 6. We will enroll additional 6 patients in this study at dose level 6.
Collaboration and License Agreements
We finalized an agreement with Roivant Sciences Ltd. (“Roivant”) providing for the reversion to Affimed of all clinical development and commercialization rights for AFM32, effective April 29, 2024. There have been no other material changes to our license agreements from those reported in “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Collaborations” in the Annual Report.
Research and Development Expense
We will use our existing liquidity primarily to fund research and development expenses for our ongoing clinical programs. Our research and development expenses are highly dependent on the development phases of our projects and therefore fluctuate widely from period to period. Our remaining research and continued development expenses mainly relate to the following key programs:
| ● | acimtamig (previously AFM13). The following is a summary of completed and ongoing research and development activities for acimtamig: |