Juno, Calgene announce more potential of CAR T therapy

Juno Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cellular immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, and Celgene Corporation have additional data from the TRANSCEND study of JCAR017 in patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

The presenters said that the results are encouraging. This is especially for the patients with dose level two with a poor prognosis who need better treatment options. Sunil Agarwal, M.D., Juno’s President of Research and Development said that the data support a potential best-in-class profile and further support the importance of a defined cell product. Agarwal said: “We continue to enroll our pivotal cohort in DLBCL patients and over the next twelve to eighteen months we intend to explore earlier lines of therapy, additional therapeutic areas, and combinations.”

TRANSCEND is an open-label, multicenter Phase 1 study to determine the safety, pharmacokinetics, and antitumor activity of JCAR017 in adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma Grade 3B, and mantle cell lymphoma.

“The results of this study continue to show the exciting potential of this CAR T therapy,” said Jay Backstrom, Chief Medical Officer and Global Head of Regulatory Affairs for Celgene. “Our collaboration with Juno reflects our commitment to delivering transformational treatments to patients with blood cancers such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma.”