- Presentation Includes Data on All 33 CAR T-Naïve Patients Treated with the Alloy™ Manufactured Material and Recaps Data on 12 Large B Cell Lymphoma Patients Treated with Phase 2 Dose Regimen
- Results Indicate an Off-the-Shelf Allogeneic CAR T Can Potentially Deliver Durable Complete Responses Comparable to Autologous CAR T Therapies
- Potentially Pivotal Phase 2 ALPHA2 Trials Ongoing in the U.S.; Sites in Europe, Canada and Australia Expected to Enroll During 2023
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., June 15, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Allogene Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALLO), a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic CAR T (AlloCAR T™) products for cancer, today at the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML) in Lugano, Switzerland presented updated data from the Phase 1 ALPHA/ALPHA2 trials of ALLO-501/501A in 33 CAR T naïve patients with relapsed/refractory (r/r) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) treated with the Alloy™ manufacturing process material across different CAR T dosing and lymphodepletion regimens. Earlier in June, data from the 12 patients, a subset of these 33 CAR T naïve patients, who received regimen being utilized in ongoing Phase 2 trials was presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
“We believe these data provide strong support for the ability of our product candidates to induce durable complete remissions at a rate similar to approved autologous CD19 CAR T therapies,” said Zachary Roberts, M.D., Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer. “The design and execution of our Phase 1 ALPHA/ALPHA 2 trials enabled a systematic evaluation of potential Phase 2 treatment regimens. Based on these data, we were able to select an optimal dosing regimen that we believe will be capable of delivering the benefit of CAR T treatment to patients without the lengthy wait time and risk of manufacturing failure associated with autologous CAR T. We have now turned our attention to enrolling our potentially pivotal Phase 2 trials as quickly as possible.”
The updated analysis (data cutoff April 20, 2023) of ALPHA/ALPHA2 examined data from all 33 CAR T-naïve patients with r/r LBCL who were treated with a single infusion or consolidation therapy (two planned infusions) of ALLO-501/501A manufactured using the Alloy™ manufacturing process. Patients received lymphodepletion with fludarabine (30 mg/m2/day x 3 days) and cyclophosphamide (300 mg/m2/day x 3 days) and varying doses of ALLO-647 (from 13 mg/day to 30 mg/day x 3 days).
The median time from enrollment to the start of therapy was three days and 100% of patients received product per specifications. No patients received bridging therapy. The dosing breakdown for the 33 patients included in this data set is as follows:
- 12 patients treated with a single dose of ALLO-501/501A and FCA90 lymphodepletion (Phase 2 regimen; recap of the ASCO 2023 data presentation)
- 6 patients treated with a single dose of ALLO-501/501A and FCA<90 lymphodepletion
- 15 patients treated with consolidation dosing of ALLO-501/501A and split lymphodepletion
| CAR T- Naïve Patients with r/r LBCL Alloy Manufacturing Process | ||||
| All (N=33) | Phase 2 Regimen (N=12) | FCA<90 (N=6) | Consolidation Dosing (N=15) | |
| Overall Response Rate (ORR), n (%) | 19 (58) | 8 (67) | 3 (50) | 8 (53) |
| Complete Response Rate (CR), n (%) | 14 (42) | 7 (58) | 1 (17) | 6 (40) |
| 6 Month Complete Response, n (%) | 10 (30) | 5 (42) | 0 | 5 (33) |
Seven of 12 (58%) patients receiving the Phase 2 regimen achieved a CR and five (42%) maintained a CR through Month 6. Of the five patients who were in CR at 6 months, four (80%) remained in CR. The fifth patient had disease progression at 24 months. The median duration of response was 23.1 months with three patients remaining in remission for over 24 months and the longest remaining in remission for over 31 months. Across all 33 patients the CR rate was 42% with 30% maintaining a CR at Month 6. These results indicate complete responses are more common with lymphodepletion regimens containing 90 mg of ALLO-647 (FCA90). Median duration of response for both the overall population (n=33) and the patients treated with the Phase 2 regimen (n=12) was 23.1 months.
| CAR T- Naïve Patients with r/r LBCL | ||||||||
| All (N=33) | Phase 2 Regimen (N=12) | FCA<90 (N=6) | Consolidation (N=15) | |||||
| All Gr N (%) | Gr 3+ N (%) | All Gr N (%) | Gr 3+ N (%) | All Gr N (%) | Gr 3+ N (%) | All Gr N (%) | Gr 3+ N (%) | |
| CRS | 8 (24) | 0 | 4 (33) | 0 | 1 (17) | 0 | 3 (20) | 0 |
| Neurotoxicity | 13 (39) | 2 (6) | 4 (33) | 0 | 2 (33) | 0 | 7 (47) | 2 (13) |
| ICANS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GvHD | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IRR | 16 (49) | 3 (9) | 8 (67) | 0 | 3 (50) | 1 (17) | 5 (33) | 2 (13) |
| Infection | 19 (58) | 5 (15) | 8 (67) | 1 (8) | 3 (50) | 1 (17) | 8 (53) | 3 (20) |
| Prolonged Gr3+ Cytopenia | - | 4 (12) | - | 2 (17) | - | 0 | - | 2 (13) |
Across the 33 patients, treatment was generally well tolerated with no incidences of Grade 3 or greater cytokine release syndrome, and no cases of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome or graft versus host disease. Cytopenia and infections were manageable and comparable to the experience with autologous CAR T cell therapies in patients with r/r LBCL.
The ALPHA/ALPHA2 Phase 1 trials were designed to assess the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy at increasing dose levels of ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A, allogeneic CAR T cell product candidates that target CD19. In addition to exploring multiple cell doses, these studies evaluated various doses of ALLO-647, Allogene’s proprietary lymphodepleting antibody designed to prevent premature rejection of AlloCAR T cells. Allogene is currently enrolling the potentially pivotal Phase 2 ALPHA2 trial of ALLO-501A in LBCL and expects to complete enrollment in 1H2024. The Company expects to open trial sites in Europe, Canada and Australia during 2023.
About ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A
ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A are anti-CD19 AlloCAR T investigational products for the treatment of large B cell lymphoma. ALLO-501A, a next-generation anti-CD19 AlloCAR T, eliminates the rituximab recognition domains in ALLO-501, which could allow for use in a broader patient population, including NHL patients with recent rituximab exposure. This product candidate is currently being studied in an ongoing potentially pivotal Phase 2 trial. In June 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation to ALLO-501A in r/r LBCL.
About Allogene Therapeutics
Allogene Therapeutics, with headquarters in South San Francisco, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) products for cancer. Led by a management team with significant experience in cell therapy, Allogene is developing a pipeline of “off-the-shelf” CAR T cell candidates with the goal of delivering readily available cell therapy on-demand, more reliably, and at greater scale to more patients. For more information, please visit www.allogene.com and follow @AllogeneTx on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The press release may, in some cases, use terms such as “could,” “designed,” “expects,” “potential,” “preliminary,” “will” or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses or current expectations concerning, among other things: the potential of allogeneic CD19 CAR T product candidates to generate durable complete responses similar to approved autologous therapies; the potential of the Phase 2 ALPHA2 trial to be a pivotal trial; Allogene’s expectation to complete enrollment of the Phase 2 ALPHA2 trial in the first half of 2024; Allogene’s expectation to open trial sites for the Phase 2 ALPHA2 trial in Europe, Canada and Australia during 2023; the design of Allogene’s trials and ALLO-647; data results that may be implied from prior results; and the potential benefits of AlloCAR T products. Various factors may cause material differences between Allogene’s expectations and actual results, including, risks and uncertainties related to: our product candidates are based on novel technologies, which makes it difficult to predict the time and cost of product candidate development and obtaining regulatory approval; Phase 1 data from our clinical trials is limited and may change as more patient data become available or may not be validated in any future or advanced clinical trial; our ability to maintain intellectual property rights necessary for the continued development of our product candidates, including pursuant to our license agreements; our product candidates may cause undesirable side effects or have other properties that could halt their clinical development, prevent their regulatory approval or limit their commercial potential; the extent to which COVID-19 adversely impacts our business, including our clinical trials; the extent to which the FDA disagrees with our clinical or regulatory plans, which could cause future delays to our clinical trials or require additional clinical trials; we may encounter difficulties enrolling patients in our clinical trials; we may not be able to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our product candidates in our clinical trials, which could prevent or delay regulatory approval and commercialization; challenges with manufacturing or optimizing manufacturing of our product candidates; and our ability to obtain additional financing to develop our products and implement our operating plans. These and other risks are discussed in greater detail in Allogene’s filings with the SEC, including without limitation under the “Risk Factors” heading of its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Any forward-looking statements that are made in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release. Allogene assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date of this press release.
Caution should be exercised regarding statements comparing autologous CAR T data. There are differences in the clinical trial design, patient populations, published data, follow-up times and the product candidates themselves, and the results from the clinical trials of autologous products may have no interpretative value on Allogene’s existing or future results.
AlloCAR T™ and Alloy™ are trademarks of Allogene Therapeutics, Inc.
Allogene’s AlloCAR T™ programs utilize the Cellectis TALEN® technologies. ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A are anti-CD19 products being jointly developed under a collaboration agreement between Servier and Allogene based on an exclusive license granted by Cellectis to Servier. Servier grants to Allogene exclusive rights to ALLO-501 and ALLO-501A in the U.S.
Allogene Media/Investor Contact:
Christine Cassiano
Chief Communications Officer
(714) 552-0326
Christine.Cassiano@allogene.com
Additional Allogene Media Contact:
Madeleine Goldstein
Manager, Corporate & Pipeline Communications
Madeleine.Goldstein@allogene.com
