FDA approves CAR T cell therapy Tecartus for mantle cell lymphoma.- Kite Pharma/Gilead Sciences

Kite Pharma/Gilead Sciences announced that the FDA has granted accelerated approval to Tecartus (brexucabtagene autoleucel, formerly KTE-X19), the first and only approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). The approval of this one-time therapy follows a priority review and FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation. Approval is based on results of ZUMA-2, a single-arm, open-label study in which 87 percent of patients responded to a single infusion of Tecartus, including 62 percent of patients achieving a complete response (CR). Among patients evaluable for safety, 18 percent experienced Grade 3 or higher cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and 37 percent experienced Grade 3 or higher neurologic toxicities.