Gilead starts a new clinical collaboration with Pfizer

Kite, a Gilead Company, announced it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration with Pfizer, Inc. to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational combination of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Pfizer’s utomilumab, a fully humanized 4-1BB agonist monoclonal antibody, in patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma.

A multi-center Phase 1/2 study sponsored by Kite is expected to begin in 2018. The results of this study will be used to evaluate options for further development of this combination, or similar combinations between Kite’s engineered T cell products and utomilumab.

Yescarta is the first chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy to be indicated for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high grade B-cell lymphoma and DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma. Yescarta is not indicated for patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma.

“Kite is committed to realizing the full potential of Yescarta and other cell therapy technologies across a range of cancers,” said David Chang, MD, PhD, Worldwide Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Kite. “We are pleased to collaborate with Pfizer on this study with utomilumab, which adds to the growing number of combination approaches we are exploring with Yescarta for patients living with lymphoma.”