BCMA-targeting therapies in ASH spotlight

At the American Society of Hematology meeting in San Diego, presentations late Monday highlighted data from Phase I studies of two candidates targeting tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor superfamily member 17 (BCMA; TNFRSF17; CD269) to treat multiple myeloma. One was a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy from Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), and the other an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) from GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK).

Data showed that depth of responses to Novartis' CART-BCMA correlated with degree of T cell expansion. Among six evaluable patients, the therapy led to one stringent complete response (sCR) ongoing at seven months, one very good partial response (VGPR) that progressed after five months, and two minimal responses (MR). There was one case of stable disease (SD) and one progressive disease (PD). The sCR and VGPR patients achieved peak T cell counts of 174,110 and 220,081, respectively, compared to 302 cells in the PD patient...