Kite Pharma’s axicabtagene got US FDA priority review status to treat NHL

Kite Pharma a leading cell therapy company, has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for priority review the Biologics License Application (BLA) for axicabtagene ciloleucel. The submission follows positive data demonstrated with a single infusion of axicabtagene ciloleucel in the ZUMA-1 phase 2 trial in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The FDA has set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date of November 29, 2017.

The filing acceptance is supported by data from the ZUMA-1 Phase 2 trial which met the primary endpoint of objective response rate (ORR) recorded after a single infusion of axicabtagene ciloleucel with 82 per cent (p < 0.0001). At a median follow-up of 8.7 months, 44 per cent of patients were in ongoing response, which included 39 percent of patients in complete response (CR).

In December 2015, axicabtagene ciloleucel received Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for DLBCL, TFL, and PMBCL. The company expects to submit its Market Authorization Application (MAA) of axicabtagene ciloleucel with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in the third quarter of 2017.

ZUMA-1 is supported in part by funding from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Therapy Acceleration Program.