BiTE® platform and the evolution toward off-the-shelf immuno-oncology approaches

Peter Kufer, vice president and innovator of the BiTE® platform at Amgen, provides an Expert View on his firm's use of technology to address areas of unmet medical need in oncology.

Despite rapid advances in the field of immuno-oncology that have transformed the cancer treatment landscape, many cancer patients are still left behind.1,2 Not every person has access to innovative therapies designed specifically to treat his or her disease. Many currently available immuno-oncology-based approaches and chemotherapies have brought long-term benefits to some patients - but many patients still need other therapeutic options.3

Amgen Oncology, one of the leading developers of innovative therapies for novel targets in difficult-to-treat cancers, is working to bring new hope for transforming clinical outcomes for patients with very few options. One technology that has the potential to advance the field of immuno-oncology is Amgen’s versatile Bispecific T-cell Engager or BiTE® platform. Amgen brought the first approved BiTE® molecule targeting CD19 to patients and we continue to pioneer the bispecific space by exploring this technology across solid tumors, such as small-cell lung and prostate cancers, as well as hematological malignancies.4,5