CD20-Targeted Gene Therapy
Manuel Litchman, MD, the president, chief executive officer, and director of Mustang Bio discussed the company’s lead and second program.
“There's not a lot of competition from the adoptive cell therapy perspective in targeting CD20. There are some newcomers, but the field has largely focused on CD19. The major competition we have is in terms of the target, but the world is a lot bigger than the CD20 target.”
MB-106, a CD20-targeted, autologous CAR T cell therapy, was shown to be efficacious for high-risk B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (B-NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in recent data presented by Mustang Bio at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2021 Virtual Congress.
MB-106 treatment yielded an overall response rate (ORR) of 93% (14 of 15) and a complete rate (CR) of 67% (10 of 15). The ORR was 91% (10 of 11) and CR was 82% (9 of 11) in patients with follicular lymphoma. As of EHA 2021, all patients achieving CR remained in remission. CAR T persistence was seen in all dosages. The treatment had an acceptable safety profile, with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurring in 6 patients (40%): 3 cases of grade 1 and 3 cases of grade 2.
GeneTherapyLive spoke with Manuel Litchman, MD, president, chief executive officer, and director, Mustang Bio, to learn more about MB-106, the company’s lead program. He also discussed their second program, gene therapy for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and research and upcoming studies with the SCID program.
