On December 4, 2016 Kite Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:KITE) reported that it has initiated the rolling submission with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for KTE-C19 as a treatment for patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) (Press release, Kite Pharma, DEC 4, 2016, View Source [SID1234516910]). The pivotal ZUMA-1 study supporting this submission enrolled patients with chemorefractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL), and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL), three subtypes of aggressive NHL. The company expects to complete its BLA submission by the end of the first quarter of 2017.

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"I am both proud and appreciative of the Kite team and our clinical investigators, who have helped to make this key milestone possible," said Arie Belldegrun, M.D., FACS, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kite. "This is an important first step toward Kite’s biggest goal – bringing to market a potentially life-saving treatment for patients suffering from aggressive NHL."

Kite also announced that the United States Adopted Name, or USAN, for KTE-C19 will be axicabtagene ciloleucel.

Axicabtagene ciloleucel (KTE-C19) received Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) by the FDA in December 2015. If approved, Kite plans to commercially launch KTE-C19 in 2017. Kite is also planning a regulatory submission to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for axicabtagene ciloleucel in 2017. Kite was granted access to Priority Medicines (PRIME) regulatory support in 2016 by the EMA for axicabtagene ciloleucel (KTE-C19) for the treatment of refractory DLBCL.

About axicabtagene ciloleucel

Kite Pharma’s lead product candidate, axicabtagene ciloleucel, is an investigational therapy in which a patient’s T cells are engineered to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to target the antigen CD19, a protein expressed on the cell surface of B-cell lymphomas and leukemias, and redirect the T cells to kill cancer cells. Axicabtagene ciloleucel has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation status for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL), and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Priority Medicines (PRIME) regulatory support for DLBCL in the EU.