Autolus Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: AUTL) jumped 12.85% after releasing new AUTO1 (obecabtagene autoleucel, obe-cel) data in refractory/relapsed Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) and r/r indolent B cell lymphomas trials.
Autolus presents new data in obe-cel.
The company presented the data at the 2021 European Hematology Association Virtual Congress. As of the May 17 data cut-off date, obe-cel had demonstrated a favorable safety profile and was well tolerated in r/r low-grade B-cell lymphoma adult patients despite the high disease burden. All the patients that received the treatment attained complete metabolic remission. However, there was mild cytokine release syndrome reported in four patients, and one patient experienced moderate cytokine release syndrome. Equally, there was no immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome was observed.
After an average of six months follow-up, eight out of nine patients achieved completed disease remission and were declared disease-free at the last follow-up. The one patient that reportedly relapsed was treated with radiotherapy. Unfortunately, one patient died due to COVID-19 infection after 5.6 months, but they were incomplete metabolic remission.
Obe-cel well-tolerated in r/r ALL
The therapy was well tolerated in all 20 patients with refractory/relapsed Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia with no patient experiencing higher or severe CRS. Interestingly, event-free survival across the treated patients at 12 and 24 month was 50.2%, but the median EFS was not attained. However, the results support obe-cel’s curative potential as a standalone therapy for adult patients with ALL.
Autolus CEO Christian Itin said that the preliminary data presented in indolent B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma suggest a high level of clinical activity combined with a favorable safety profile. He added that this could represent a massive opportunity to extend obe-cel treatment’s benefits to more patients with B cell malignancies.