Ide-cel, an investigational CAR T cell therapy for multiple myeloma, met primary endpoint and key secondary endpoints

Pivotal study results demonstrated deep and durable responses in a heavily pre-treated and highly refractory patient population

PRINCETON, N.J., & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and bluebird bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUE) today announced updated results from the pivotal, Phase 2 KarMMa study evaluating the efficacy and safety of the companies’ investigational B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy, idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel; bb2121), in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. These data will be shared in an oral presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2020 (ASCO20) Virtual Scientific Program on May 29 at 8:00 AM ET.

In the study, 128 patients with heavily pretreated relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who were exposed to at least three prior therapies and were refractory to their last regimen per the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) definition (no response to therapy or disease progressed within 60 days) were treated with ide-cel across target dose levels of 150-450 x 106 CAR+ T cells. Patients had a median of six prior regimens; 84% were refractory to all three classes of commonly used treatments including an immunomodulatory (IMiD) agent, a proteasome inhibitor (PI) and an anti-CD38 antibody, and 94% were refractory to anti-CD38 antibodies. Median duration of follow-up was 13.3 months.

The overall response rate (ORR) was 73% across all dose levels, including 33% of patients who had a complete response (CR) or stringent CR (sCR). Median duration of response (DoR) was 10.7 months, with 19.0 month median DoR for patients who had a CR or sCR. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 8.8 months, with 20.2 month median PFS for patients who had a CR or sCR. All patients who had CR or sCR and were evaluable for minimal residual disease (MRD), were MRD-negative. Clinically meaningful benefit was consistently observed across subgroups, and nearly all subgroups had an ORR of 50% or greater, including older and high-risk patients. The overall survival (OS) data continue to mature, with an estimated median OS of 19.4 months across all dose levels and 78% of patients alive at 12 months.1 Results support a favorable benefit-risk profile for ide-cel across the target dose levels of 150 to 450 × 106 CAR+ T cells.

*Data have been updated following abstract publication †Not reported due to small n ††Data not reported

The most frequently reported adverse events (AEs) were cytopenia and cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Cytopenias were common and not dose related. Overall, CRS of any grade was reported in 84% (107/128) of patients. Grade 3 or higher CRS occurred in