BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Kite starts combo trial with Roche's PD-L1

October 6, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:KITE) started ZUMA-6, a Phase Ib/II trial of its cell therapy KTE-C19 in combination with PD-L1 inhibitor Tecentriq atezolizumab from the Genentech Inc. unit of Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY) to treat refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Kite said it is the first industry-sponsored trial to combine an anti- CD19 engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy and a checkpoint inhibitor.

Kite said the combination could "enhance and prolong" the activity of KTE-C19. Data reported last week from the Phase I/II ZUMA-1 trial of KTE-C19 to treat DLBCL showed strong response rates, but raised questions about the durability of the responses (see BioCentury Extra, Sept. 26). ...