Celgene updates on two T cell therapy collaborations

As the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology enters its final day, US biotech major Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) has released data on two of its co-development programs exploring T cell therapies.

Data from a Phase I study investigating JCAR017 as a therapy for a certain kind of non-Hodgkin lymphoma show a 66% overall response rate and a 50% complete response at three months.

The candidate is part of a collaboration with Juno Therapeutics (Nasdaq: JUNO).

On the safety side, in the core analysis group, 18% of patients experienced severe neurotoxicity and 2% experienced severe cytokine release syndrome.

Juno’s R&D president Sunil Agarwal said: “We are encouraged by the high rates of durable responses and the early survival data in these patients.”

“We are also encouraged by the early safety data - a majority of patients treated experienced no cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity of any grade, which suggests the potential for outpatient administration.”

Celgene has also released data from a Phase I study of bb2121, an investigational treatment for multiple myeloma being developed with bluebird bio (Nasdaq :BLUE).

Data from the study, which is designed to establish dosing recommendations for a Phase II trial, show an overall response rate across all cohorts of 89% and a 27% complete response rate across active dose cohorts.

The most frequently reported treatment-emergent adverse events were neutropenia (35%), CRS (35%), and fatigue (31%).

David Davidson, chief medical officer at bluebird said: “It is impressive to see objective responses in all patients treated at dose levels of 150 x 106 CAR+ T cells or higher in such a heavily pretreated population, including those with high tumor burden.”

“We are encouraged by the duration and depth of responses, and pleased that the safety profile remains readily manageable.”

“Although these data are still early, it is encouraging that no patient in the active dose cohorts has had myeloma progression. In light of these results, we look forward to initiating the expansion phase of the CRB-401 study in the coming months.”

Celgene began its T cell therapy collaboration with bluebird bio in 2013. In June 2015, the collaboration was amended and restated to focus on developing product candidates targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA).

Celgene and Juno began collaborating to develop T cell therapies in June 2015. In April 2016, Celgene exercised its option to develop and commercialize the Juno CD19 program outside North America and China.