trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/jIb0bvpWqPhPt4KMWvVs7g2 content esgSubNav
In This List

Gilead CAR-T therapy shows long-lasting positive reaction in lymphoma

Blog

A Pharmaceutical Company Capitalizes on M&A Activity with Brokerage Research

Blog

2021 Year in Review: Highlighting Key Investment Banking Trends

Blog

Insight Weekly: US stock performance; banks' M&A risk; COVID-19 vaccine makers' earnings

Blog

Global M&A By the Numbers: Q3 2021


Gilead CAR-T therapy shows long-lasting positive reaction in lymphoma

Gilead Sciences Inc. said follow-up data from a study of Yescarta in patients with a type of blood cancer showed "encouraging" durability and depth of response, or long-lasting positive reaction, to the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

Results from an updated analysis of the Zuma-1 study showed that at a median follow-up of 15.4 months following a single infusion of Yescarta, 42% of patients continued to respond to therapy, including 40% who were in complete remission, or showing no evidence of disease.

SNL Image

The median time it took for the disease to recur or progress, known as duration of response, was 11.1 months. The study by Gilead unit Kite Pharma Inc. evaluated Yescarta, or axicabtagene ciloleucel, in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, or DLBCL, that is resistant to treatment.

Among patients who reached complete remission — when tests, physical exams, and scans show that signs of cancer are gone — the median duration of response was not reached.

Median overall survival was not reached, with an overall survival rate at 18 months of 52%.

Yescarta is a CAR-T cell therapy which received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October. The CAR-T cell therapies infuse gene-edited cells back in the body to fight blood cancers.

The first approved CAR-T cell therapy, Novartis AG's Kymriah, focuses on pediatric B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or ALL, while Yescarta targets relapsed or refractory DLBCL.

DLBCL is the most common type of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, accounting for three out of every five cases. In the U.S. each year, approximately 7,500 patients are diagnosed with untreatable DLBCL who are eligible for CAR-T cell therapy.

The results were presented at the 59th Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta.