Kite Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of novel cancer immunotherapy products. The company is developing a pipeline of engineered autologous cell therapy-based product candidates for the treatment of solid and hematological malignancies. Its lead product candidate is KTE-C19, a chimeric antigen receptors (CAR)-based therapy that is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma, including primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma and transformed follicular lymphoma. The company is also conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 on patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma; a Phase 1-2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 on adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia; and a Phase 1-2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory. In addition, it engages in developing T cell receptors-based therapies, which targets self-antigens, viral antigens, and neo-antigens. The company has a research collaboration and license agreement with Amgen Inc. to develop and commercialize various CAR-based product candidates; collaboration agreements with the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute and bluebird bio, Inc.; cooperative research and development agreements with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; a license agreement with Cabaret Biotech Ltd.; a license and research agreement with Alpine Immune Sciences, Inc.; and a clinical trial collaboration agreement with Genentech to evaluate the safety and efficacy of KTE-C19, in combination with atezolizumab in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Kite Pharma, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.
KITE getting hit today on fallout from JUNO Feuerstein: Assessing the Impact of Juno's Cancer CAR-T Stumble on Biotech Stocks thestreet.com Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) reminds investors yet again that the business of biotech -- developing new medicines that are effective and reasonably safe -- is hard to get right. Genetically engineering immune cells to recognize and kill cancer is no longer science fiction. It's real, and desperately sick patients, many with no medical options left, stand to benefit. But as we learned Thursday night, these powerful cellular therapies -- known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) -- still come with great risk. Three leukemia patients treated with Juno's cellular therapy in a clinical trial died from brain swelling. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration stepped in to halt the trial until Juno figures out what went wrong and comes up with a fix. There are, of course, multiple investment ramifications to consider now that Juno has run into a serious safety setback. Here are some thoughts and questions, in no particular order: Juno is in a jam. Thursday night, the company conceded the trial halt means its lead CAR-T JCAR015 targeting leukemia won't be on the docket for FDA review and (hopefully) approval until 2018, a delay of one year. This pushed-back timeline assumes Juno has figured out what went wrong and can re-start the clinical trial relatively quickly. Juno believes a more aggressive mix of chemotherapy used to pre-condition some patients for its CAR-T caused the deadly brain swelling. The fix, then, might be to revert back to a milder form of chemotherapy used previously, which hasn't caused brain swelling. But assuring Juno's CAR-T is safer could also diminish the therapy's efficacy. What if Juno's explanation for the cause of the patients' deaths is wrong? Not all CAR-Ts are alike. On Thursday's conference call, Juno went to great lengths to explain the safety issued tied to JCAR015 hasn't been observed in the rest of its cellular therapy pipeline. Will this assurance really make investors feel better? Is this a Juno-specific problem or will investors also retreat from Kite Pharma (KITE) and Novartis (NVS) , the two closest competitors developing CAR-T therapies? Kite, in particular, has been moving forward aggressively, trying to beat Juno to the market. [And Kite will, if all goes well.] Speed breeds mistakes, so will Kite stumble as well? At the very least, Kite appears to be rejoicing in Juno's misfortune. Hours after Juno disclosed its problems Thursday night, Kite issued a press release touting the completion of patient enrollment into its own pivotal CAR-T clinical trial. It's hard to believe the timing of Kite's press release was coincidental, but even if it was, that's playing ugly.
But getting hype is so easy I mean, science is so awesome! Interesting that it still needs chemotherapy treatment. They never mention that. It's always about this NEW EXCITING SCIENCE that's never been seen before. Reality is it builds on old science, but that story doesn't sound disruptive enough! My thinking is always, if this science was so good then it would have eliminated cancer in mice (where all this testing starts). It's a science in progress, and that is where the valuation discordance comes in. The science will be improved, but will it ever be good enough to cure 25% of cancers? In the next 20 years? Right now these cancer treatments just prolong lifespan, and cure a small number of cases. But even if immunotherapy science fails at curing cancer, it will accomplish one important thing: getting people to accept the science of immunotherapy. That can lead to other commercial endeavours. But you always have to fool people into believing the higher good story first!
Hot off the press Canaccord Genuity Analysts Give Kite Pharma Inc. (KITE) a $75.00 Price Target http://www.thecerbatgem.com/2016/10...ite-pharma-inc-kite-a-75-00-price-target.html
Kite Pharma Begins Filing for KTE-C19, Presents Data at ASH http://finance.yahoo.com/news/kite-pharma-begins-filing-kte-152003840.html
Up 17% right now on positive trial results Kite Pharma (KITE) Reports Positive Topline Data on Axicabtagene Ciloleucel from First Pivotal CAR-T Trial in Patients with Aggressive NHL Source: http://www.streetinsider.com/Corpor...in+Patients+with+Aggressive+NHL/12602415.html
Haha me too. I look for "positive" or "negative" or synonyms of those two, and then I look for "trial" and "phase". That's about it!
