Gilead seeks to keep the CAR-T ball rolling at ASCO

After a slow start, there have been better recent sales of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the CAR-T therapy that Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) picked up in its $11.9 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma in 2017.

In the first quarter of 2019, Yescarta brought in nearly $100 million sales, double the amount from the first three months of 2018, offering hope that it might give Gilead some return on its investment.

The company will attempt to further this effort at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting with new safety and efficacy data from the Pivotal ZUMA-1 trial to provide greater understanding of Yescarta’s use in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy.