On June 8, 2022 Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T) products for cancer, reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation to ALLO-501A in relapsed/refractory LBCL (Press release, Allogene, JUN 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234616278]). The RMAT designation was based on the potential of ALLO-501A to address the unmet need for patients who have failed other therapies.
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"The designation for ALLO-501A supports the patient need for access to an off-the-shelf CAR T product that can be delivered faster, more reliably, and at greater scale," said Rafael Amado, M.D., Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer. "Patients who are eligible for autologous CAR T therapy are often faced with treatment delays and manufacturing failures, placing them at risk for disease progression and disease-related complications. We look forward to initiating our pivotal trial on ALLO-501A and making this innovative product candidate readily available to patients."
Results from the ALPHA2 study were presented at an oral session of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) (Free ASH Whitepaper) annual meeting in December 2021. Data support the potential of ALLO-501A to provide a safe and durable alternative to approved autologous CAR T therapies in CAR T naïve patients.
ALLO-501A was associated with consistent and manageable safety with no dose limiting toxicities (DLTs) or graft-vs-host disease (GvHD) and minimal Grade 3 Immune Effector Cell-Associated Neurotoxicity Syndrome (ICANS), or Grade 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS).
There were no relapses observed in LBCL CAR T naïve patients who were in a complete response (CR) at six months with the longest ongoing CRs with ALLO-501A at 15+ months.
Nearly all enrolled patients were able to receive therapy with the median time from enrollment to initiation of treatment of two days in ALPHA2.
Established under the 21st Century Cures Act, RMAT designation is a dedicated program designed to expedite the development and review processes for promising pipeline products, including cell therapies, that includes all the benefits of Fast Track and Breakthrough designation. An investigational cell therapy is eligible for RMAT designation if it is intended to treat, modify, reverse, or cure a serious or life-threatening disease; and preliminary clinical evidence indicates that the therapy has the potential to address unmet medical needs for that disease. Advantages of the RMAT designation include early interactions with FDA that may be used to discuss potential surrogate or intermediate endpoints and potential ways to satisfy post approval requirements.