![]() “We’re seeing patients with highly refractory diseases like lupus, myositis and multiple sclerosis having profound responses from CAR-T,” she said. “We’re also doing a lot of work in solid tumors and beginning to look at autoimmune approaches,” Perettie said, pointing to compelling data related to autoimmune diseases. She does see room to expand CAR-T to other areas. “But we haven't seen that,” Perettie said. Initially there were some concerns the FDA warning would scare patients from taking these treatments. Perettie said this is something the company will monitor, but so far, hasn’t seen evidence its drugs triggered T cell malignancies, and the risk of these cancers appears to be lower in CAR-T than from traditional chemotherapy. “The early data looks quite promising.”ĬAR-T therapy safety recently got additional scrutiny when the FDA moved to require a black box warning on CAR-T treatments to alert patients that they may trigger secondary T cell cancers. “We have three constructs that are in phase one right now and we're going to pick the winner at the end of the year, and rapidly advance it,” she said. Kite is also working to improve its existing therapeutics and is exploring three modified versions of Yescarta aimed at improving safety and efficacy, Perettie said. “Part of that has been focused on expanding both our Yescarta and Tecartus labels so that we can move into earlier lines,” she said.ĭata shows survival rates rise when the treatment is started sooner, possibly because harvested cells and the patients are healthier, so gaining approval to start treatment earlier is a goal. “The last five years have been absolutely amazing,” Perettie said, adding that the company aims to maintain its market leadership and serve more patients. Kite officials also want to improve their existing CAR-T treatments and broaden their applications. Kite is building partnerships with hospitals that are affiliated with community oncology practices to give more patients access and to encourage treatment referrals. Most authorized centers are academic medical centers, but the majority of people with cancer - 70% to 80% are treated in community practices, Perettie said. and 400 worldwide - oncologists sometimes don’t offer it. It’s insanity to me that we’re unable to reach more patients,” she said.īecause CAR-T treatments are only administered in authorized facilities - there are 135 in the U.S. “This is a potentially curative therapy for almost half of the patients. ![]() Currently, only 2 in 10 American patients who could benefit from CAR-T get the treatment, Perettie said. The goal now is not only speed but broadened access. To date, Kite has treated more than 19,500 patients with its CAR-T therapies. The company kept its singular focus on CAR-T, sparing it from having to make portfolio tradeoffs that detract from its mission. Perettie said the deal gave Kite the best of both worlds, allowing it to remain separate but giving it access to Gilead’s extensive resources. Gilead acquired Kite in 2017 for $11.9 billion to bolster its market position in cell therapy. “We have another set of efforts ongoing and I hope by the end of the year, we're able to announce again that we can shorten it even further.” Innovating next-gen approaches And that's allowed us to get to this industry-leading manufacturing turnaround time and we're not going to stop here,” Perettie said. ![]() Allogeneic treatments use donor cells to create a less expensive option that don’t require cell collection from the ill patient, but can trigger an immune reaction, which has hampered development.Įven with an off-the-shelf option, patients can still wait weeks for a scheduled treatment, and Kite aims to further whittle down the turnaround time, Perettie said. It may also position the lymphoma therapy to withstand competition from a crop of “off the shelf” allogeneic treatments working their way through the pipeline, said Perettie. Kite officials expect it will now take around 14 days from a patient’s cell collection to infusion - a reduced timeline that not only helps patients, but gives the company an edge over competitors.
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