JP Morgan Week 2025 – Paul Hastings

Most of the successful cell therapies to date have been CAR-T therapies, which use patients’ T-cells to identify and destroy tumours. But T-cells are not the only cell with therapeutic potential, and a growing number of researchers and young biotechs are looking at Natural Killer (NK) cells to build cell therapies that avoid some of the toxicity of CAR-T therapies.

San Francisco-based Nkarta is one of these companies, and not only are they using NK cells, but they’re using them to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases like lupus – another area with promising research that’s yet to be proven in the market.

At JP Morgan last month, pharmaphorum editor-in-chief Jonah Comstock caught up with Paul Hastings, the CEO of Nkarta, to talk about why the company is playing in so many pioneering spaces, and why they think NK cells and autoimmune diseases are a good fit for one another. He gave an update on the upcoming data from their phase 1-2 studies.

Hastings also talks about the deal-making environment, both broadly and specifically around cell therapy, and about the potential improvement that “off-the-shelf” allogeneic cell therapies could have over autologous cell therapies.

Check out the video for a look at an up-and-coming innovator in the cell therapy space.