Gilead’s Kite flies higher as Yescarta leads CAR-T therapy class to earlier lymphoma treatment

Kite Pharma CEO Christi Shaw has put the eligible U.S. patient population for Yescarta in the second-line setting at 14,000 compared with 8,000 patients for its original third-line use. The new indication could get Yescarta $1.5 billion in peak sales over time, according to analysts at RBC Capital Markets.

The optimism—and the FDA nod—came from the phase 3 Zuma-7 trial. The study showed Yescarta reduced the risk of disease progression, death or the need for a new therapy by 60.2% compared to standard of care, which involves chemotherapy and stem cell transplant. At two years, 40.5% of Yescarta takers were still alive and didn’t require additional cancer treatment or experience cancer progression, versus 16.3% for the control arm.

It’s also worth noting that, while 94% of patients in the Yescarta group successfully received the CAR-T therapy, only 36% of those in the control arm actually made it to stem cell transplant, Shaw noted during an interview.

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