Biotech Strategy Blog

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

Posts tagged ‘Kite’

An unexpected renaissance

Rotterdam, Feb 2023

With so much focus on T cell fitness and exhaustion of late I wanted to highlight an area in the CAR-T cell space, which was all the rage a decade ago then quietly fizzled somewhat, leading many observers to wonder if it was great in theory, but not so much in practice.

This subniche is going through a renaissance of sorts as more research is conducted and we learn enough from the experiments and past mistakes to start moving forward again.

In this post, we’re gimng to focus exclusively on one of these aspects and see what’s new and where things might be headed because this isn’t an isolated incident…

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Are gamma delta T cells ready yet for prime time?

Not in San Diego: We took a close look at the potential for targeting gamma delta (𝞬𝝳) T cells early last year in an extended mini-series looking at the landscape including some of the early companies leading the way in this niche.

Since then there’s been a raft of company related announcements and collaborations in recent months, highlighting the ongoing interest in this field.

In this post, it’s time to revisit the original landscape (link), as well as explore how well some of the biotech companies who are active in this space are navigating the R&D roller coaster.

We will also be discussing recent data presented at the AACR20 virtual meetings.

So what did we learn about gamma delta T Cell therapies at AACR20 – who stands out from the increasingly crowded pack?

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The Potential of CAR-NK Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy

This week the conference cycle continues with the annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) (Twitter #ASGCT20).

Due to the ongoing travel challenges and need for social distancing as result of Covid–19, one key annual immunology meeting originally slated for this month was AAI in Honolulu, which was sadly cancelled. Fortunately, ASGCT is being held as a live virtual meeting instead, so do check it out if you have a keen interest in this field.

One area we’re hoping to learn more about at ASGCT20 is cell therapy using natural killer (NK) cells. It’s an exciting and emerging area, which is attracting a lot of interest of late.

Those following the NK cell space will no doubt have seen the recent announcement of the collaboration between Kite/Gilead and Melbourne based oNKo-innate, co-founded by Prof Nick Huntington (@Dr_Nick_Bikes) and Dr Jai Rautella (Link to PR).

Other NK focused companies in the news include the licensing by Avectas of the CAR-NK cell therapy from Galway based ONK Therapeutics, founded by Prof Mike O’Dwyer (@MichaelodwyerMD) (Link to PR).

It’s definitely an exciting time to be an NK cell biologist!

In our ongoing series of expert interviews, we caught up with Prof Huntington from Melbourne to talk about the potential of CAR-NK cell therapies.

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ASH17 CAR T cell therapy Preview

For the last couple of years at every annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference, I have posted an extensive Preview of the CAR T cell therapy landscape and looked at which abstracts piqued my interest.

The roaring 30s CAR

This year the review is the most extensive to date, with more companies, more research groups, more tumour types and way more preclinical research coming through. It’s like a kaleidoscope of ideas cascading through R&D.

The other thing to take note is how fast the field is moving – it’s warp speed now and so much comes through the literature every month on top of that.

So here we go – hold onto your hats as there is a LOT to contemplate this year!

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ASH17 Preview of emerging therapies for Aggressive Lymphomas

And we’re off on the infamous ASH DASH…

Atlanta Centennial Olympic Park

The annual data drop for the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in Atlanta, Georgia is finally here.

Each year we write a series of in-depth previews ahead of the event exploring different aspects of hematologic malignancies in terms of what’s important, what to watch out for, and also key abstracts that may (or may not) have an impact.

This year we kick off the first of our series with a look at aggressive lymphomas and novel therapies in development including CAR T cell therapies, antibodies, ADCs and targeted therapies. There are some surprsies (of course) and also some potentially interesting relationships and consequences to consider.

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Exploring pre-existing immunity in cancer immunotherapy trials

One of the intriguing themes that emerged recently at ASCO from several cancer immunotherapy trials centred around whether any elicited immune responses actually correlated with outcomes and if so, why and how?

Gems from the ASCO17 poster hall

It sounds easy in practice, yet in reality the topic has been quite a controversial one that has been hotly debated for a while.

With a wealth of new cancer immunotherapy trials now undwerway and initial results trickling out, how do we start to make sense of the information and what do we learn that might be useful going forward for future trials and the field as a whole?

With the help of a renowned cancer immunologist, we explored this concept in more detail to determine what can be gleaned from the data available.

Today, we look at part one of our latest mini-series, with the second part to follow later this week.

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Novartis JULIET trial and other CAR-T cell issues

Yesterday Novartis announced the initial data from the JULIET trial in relapsed/refractory aggressive lymphomas such as diffuse large cell lymphomas (DLBCL) that were presented at the upcoming International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (iCML) meeting in Lugano.

Here at BSB, we’ve been following CAR T cell therapy developments in earnest since 2012 when Penn and Novartis first announced their collaboration to develop what is now known as CTL019.

Five years on, we now have two such cell therapy products already filed with the Health Authorities and the JULIET trial will likely be the third indication submitted by the end of the year. This niche is now well established for regular readers and not something that has been a flash in the pan over a year or so.

There are a few interesting points of note on the CAR T cell front that are also worth exploring in conjunction with this news.

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ASCO 2017 CAR T Cell Therapy Preview

Chicago RiverAlthough ASH and ASGCT are important meetings for CAR T cell therapies, there are still some intriguing data to be had at ASCO next month, including both oral and poster abstracts.

In our latest ASCO 2017 Preview, we take a look at what to expect from in the CAR T cell space.

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On Kite’s cerebral edema and Genentech’s IMvigor211 miss

We’re overdue a roundup and discussion on various key topics of interest to BSB readers, so here goes…

Today’s topics include an in-depth look at the impact of some negative events:

  • Kite and the cerebral oedema death with axi-cel
  • Genentech’s atezolizumab OS miss in urothelial cancer

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JPM17 Healthcare Conference Day 3 Highlights

It’s Wednesday at the 2017 JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and the last full day of the meeting. 

SF Streetcar at Pine StIt’s also our last day for a rolling blog; we hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage and commentary this year.

If you want to catch up on what we’ve written about, do check out our posts form Day 1 (Link) and Day 2 of JPM17 (Link).

Yesterday also included some thoughts on the latest Merck pembrolizumab filing announcement in 1L NSCLC, which has certainly had a dramatic impact on the market, even for big pharma (MRK +$4.9B, BMY -$3.3B).

Companies we’ve covered so far include: Celgene, Incyte, Seattle Genetics, Clovis, Puma, BMS, Five Prime, Nektar, Juno and others.

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