Apr 2017 – A new product, KITE-585, for multiple myeloma
Promising preclinical data from KITE-585, a fully human Anti-BCMA CAR T-Cell candidate
Phase 1 clinical study of KITE-585 in patients with multiple myeloma planned for 2017
New data presentations from preclinical studies related to KITE-585, a fully human anti-B Cell Maturation Antigen (BCMA) chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product candidate for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM).
In today’s oral presentation KITE-585 demonstrated potent in vitro and in vivo activity against MM cell lines. CAR T cells were active in the presence of soluble BCMA and also eradicated established MM tumors in mice. KITE-585 contains a proprietary linker with the CD28 co-stimulatory domain. This configuration resulted in activation and proliferation of T-cells in the presence of MM cell lines, with no evidence of tonic signaling in the absence of target cells.
These promising preclinical data presented at AACR suggest the potential of KITE-585 to offer a one-time treatment to address the high unmet need in multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer. The roadmap developed for the clinical development and manufacturing expertise of axicabtagene ciloleucel will be invaluable as we accelerate KITE-585 into the clinic later this year.
About Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a rare and aggressive cancer. In 2016, there were an estimated 30,330 new cases of MM and 12,650 disease-related deaths in the U.S. alone. Nearly 95,000 people are either living with, or in remission from, MM. Treatment is chronic for most patients, usually with multi-therapy combinations, and most patients will eventually relapse. The median overall survival for high risk disease is 24-36 months.
About KITE-585
KITE-585 is an investigational therapy in which a patient’s T cells are engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to target the B cell maturation antigen (BCMA), a protein expressed on the cell surface of multiple myelomas (MM), and redirect the T cells to kill cancer cells. Kite expects to file an investigational new drug application (IND) for KITE-585 and initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial of KITE-585 in 2017.