Cell therapy
Gilead’s layoffs include 72 employees at its Seattle location, which will close. Kite will shut down its Philadelphia facility. The layoffs are attributed to aligning resources with long-term strategic goals.
Allogene is ceasing enrollment in a Phase I trial of cema-cel for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia after Bristol Myers Squibb’s Breyanzi was approved in the indication earlier this year.
Following strong treatment response data for Adaptimmune’s lete-cel, the biotech is planning to initiate a rolling BLA submission to the FDA, set to start by the end of 2025.
BioSpace takes a look at the headlines across a heavy earnings week for biotechs, checking in on Allogene, Rapport and more.
Truist Securities analyst Asthika Goonewardene in an investor note said data for anito-cel—particularly its safety profile—will help differentiate the CAR T therapy from Legend Biotech and J&J’s entrenched Carvykti in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
In our anniversary episode, we discuss a rare earnings miss for Eli Lilly, a pivotal metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis victory for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, growing excitement about CAR Ts for autoimmune disease and the ongoing controversy over HeLa cells.
In a tough fundraising space, cell therapy biotechs pursuing autoimmune indications review staffing to ensure the right expertise is in place to tackle the new disease area.
Multiple players are exploring whether modalities designed to combat B cell malignancies can be repurposed against lupus, myasthenia gravis and other conditions traced to misdirected immune response.
While some of the initial excitement around immunotherapies has waned, companies—particularly smaller biotechs—are developing newer iterations that will take cancer care to the next level.
While ex vivo genome editing results in highly effective cell therapies, it can lead to off-target effects. Caribou Biosciences has come up with a novel approach for potentially more precise gene editing compared to all-RNA guides.
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