Bluebird News A Positive For Juno, Kite Pharma

Citi’s Robyn Karnauskas said the positive early stage cancer study results from bluebird bio Inc BLUE is positive for CAR-T space and B-cell maturation antigen (BMCA) drugs of Juno Therapeutics Inc JUNO and Kite Pharma Inc KITE.

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are proteins that allow the T cells to recognize a specific protein (antigen) on tumor cells. BCMA is a suitable target for CAR-expressing T cells, and adoptive transfer of anti-BCMA-CAR-expressing T cells is a promising new strategy for treating multiple myeloma.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based bluebird bio said early data from its ongoing Phase 1 study of bb2121 showed objective anti-tumor responses in heavily pre-treated multiple myeloma patients. Bluebird bio is developing bb2121 in collaboration with Celgene Corporation CELG.

Study Highlights

Following are the key highlights of the study:

• In highly refractory multiple myeloma, bb2121 shows 78 percent overall response rate (ORR), including 100 percent ORR at higher doses tested.
• bb2121 appears safe, with no DLTs or serious cases of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) or neurotoxicity observed.
• Safety profile was achieved with no anti-IL6/steroid treatment.

Beyond The Blue

Given the safety profile, the results are likely to boost investor confidence in CAR-T, following Juno Therapeutics' recent clinical hold due to neuro-toxicity related deaths.

Importantly, the analyst noted that bluebird's BCMA success is also a positive read-through for Juno and Kite Pharma as both are developing their own BCMA drugs for multiple myeloma and other B-cell malignancies.

“Though we note that the data is still early, we believe that Bluebird's success provides clinical validation for using BCMA to target multiple myeloma,” Karnauskas wrote in a note.

While Kite Pharma is expected to file IND for their fully-human KITE-585 in 2017, Juno expects to be in clinic as early as first half of 2017.

At last check, shares of bluebird surged 15.70 percent to $69.82. Meanwhile, Juno Therapeutics were up 0.25 percent to $20.10, while Kite Pharma fell 0.68 percent to $50.58.