Biotech Strategy Blog

Commentary on Science, Innovation & New Products with a focus on Oncology, Hematology & Immunotherapy

Posts tagged ‘Ibrutinib CLL’

Making CAR T cell therapy more effective in leukemia and solid tumors

AACR Annual Meeting 2016 BannerOne of the hot topics at the forthcoming 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in New Orleans is likely to be CAR T cell therapy (Twitter: #AACR16).

Several research groups have shown impressive results in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), but challenges remain in using adoptive cell therapy to treat other leukemias such as CLL, as we heard from Dr Porter at the recent BMT Tandem meeting. See post: Challenges and Opportunities of CAR T cell therapy in CLL. Perhaps more significantly, there’s a long way to go before CAR T cell therapies hit prime time in solid tumours.

What is fascinating is the pace of scientific research in the field. By the time the first CAR-T cell therapy is FDA approved, the second generation constructs used in them will most likely be obsolete.

This post reviews completely new research, which we’ve not written about before, that I expect we’ll hear more about at AACR, and discusses novel concepts about how to make CAR T cell therapy more effective in both leukemia and solid tumours.  It’s a good pre-AACR preparation for those interested in cancer immunotherapy and the emerging CAR T cell therapy landscape.

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Ibrutinib leads the race to CLL 17p deletion market

Earlier this month, Janssen/Pharmacyclics announced they had submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) for Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval of ibrutinib, an oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BTK) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) for the treatment of patients with a deletion of the short arm of chromosome 17 (del17p). Here’s a link to July 10 press release.

The company have requested Priority review; approval later this year or in early 2014 is highly likely given that the agent has also been designated a Breakthrough Therapy by the FDA.

This is great news for CLL patients!

CLL is an incurable disease. It is the most common leukemia in the United States with 15,500 new diagnoses a year.

Chromosomal abnormalities are fairly common in CLL and predict both time to first treatment and overall survival i.e. how long someone will live. Sadly, those with a 17p deletion have the worst outcome and a poor prognosis.

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ASCO 2013 CLL Runners and Riders in Race to Market #ASCO13

THE data of the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) that starts later this week in Chicago is expected to be the early clinical trial results for new breakthrough immunotherapies that target PD-1/PD-L1.

However, I’m also excited about the data being presented for the treatment of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), a disease that kills 75,000 people a year around the world. ASCO typically does not have a strong focus on hematology and blood cancers, so it’s a reflection of the clinical significance of the data that it’s a hot topic at the meeting.

Several companies are in the race to bring promising new CLL drugs to market, and have presentations in Chicago.

Earlier this year, the FDA gave it’s new Breakthrough Designation to two CLL new products: ibrutinib, a bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor from Pharmacyclics and obinutuzumab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody from Roche Glycart. The breakthrough therapy designation recognizes the potential of these drugs to change the standard of care in CLL and meet unmet medical needs.

In many ways the changing CLL landscape reminds me of where prostate cancer was a few years ago just before new treatments such as enzalutamide and abiraterone came to market.

If you haven’t already done so I encourage you to watch the ASCO 2013 preview video from Sally Church (@MaverickNY) in which she highlights several of the key CLL oral presentations and posters. Update Sept 18: this video is now available on the Premium Content Video page.

A few of the CLL new products I’ll be looking out for at ASCO 2013 include:

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