ASH 2023 – Bristol follows in Talvey’s slipstream
With Johnson & Johnson’s GPRC5D T-cell engager Talvey approved four months ago, Bristol Myers Squibb is making progress with a similarly acting Car-T cell therapy, BMS-986393. ASH today heard that this asset’s phase 1 study now has 73 evaluable multiple myeloma subjects, versus 19 discussed at ASH a year ago, and the headline response rate is 88%, including a 45% rate of complete remissions, and a 12-month median duration of response. This compares favourably with Talvey’s US label, which cites a 73% ORR, 35% CR rate and 9.5-month median response duration. However, Bristol has seen dose-dependent cytokine release, and revealed that one patient given a 450 million cell dose died from drug-related cytokine release. The company instead zeroed in on its recommended phase 2 dose, 150 million cells, where remission rates are 100% in patients given prior BCMA-directed therapy, and 87% in those who hadn’t been. Intriguingly, Bristol recently took a bispecific anti-BCMA x GPRC5D Car, BMS-986453, into phase 1. The next plans for BMS-986393 are a phase 1 combo trial, and a phase 2 study opening in April.
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