The risk of a lentiviral vector binding to a malignant B cell rather than a T-cell, giving cancerous CAR-expressing cells the ability to hide from CAR-T cells that target leukaemia, could hamper the manufacturers of CAR-T therapies such as Novartis and Gilead, which make Kymriah and Yescarta respectively, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania. A 20-year old patient died as a result of the incident. Another CAR-T, Kite Pharma’s Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), was approved for DLBCL in October 2017, shortly before Kite’s $11.9 billion acquisition by Gilead Sciences. In addition, it is not clear whether the virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions, or if patients will need to have their own immune systems destroyed in order for this to happen.
The risk of a lentiviral vector binding to a malignant B cell rather than a T-cell, giving cancerous CAR-expressing cells the ability to hide from CAR-T cells that target leukaemia, could hamper the manufacturers of CAR-T therapies such as Novartis and Gilead, which make Kymriah and Yescarta respectively, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania. A 20-year old patient died as a result of the incident. In addition, it is not clear whether the virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions, or if patients will need to have their own immune systems destroyed in order for this to happen.