Pharmaceutical Business review

FDA places clinical hold on Juno Therapeutics’ JCAR015 Phase II ROCKET trial

The clinical hold was initiated after two patient deaths last week, which followed the recent addition of fludarabine to the pre-conditioning regimen.

Juno has proposed to the FDA to continue the ROCKET trial using JCAR015 with cyclophosphamide pre-conditioning alone. In response, the FDA has requested that Juno submit, as a Complete Response to the Clinical Hold: a revised patient informed consent form, a revised investigator brochure, a revised trial protocol, and a copy of the presentation made to the agency yesterday. Juno will submit the requested information to the FDA this week.

Juno’s trials and plans for its other CD19-directed CAR-T cell product candidates, including JCAR017, are not affected.

Juno Therapeutics is building a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company focused on re-engaging the body’s immune system to revolutionize the treatment of cancer.