The 20-acre site will significantly expand Kite’s ability to manufacture a variety of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) therapies, including Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), Kite’s first commercially available CAR T cancer therapy, and investigational T cell receptor (TCR) cell therapies being evaluated in solid tumors.
“This new facility in Frederick County builds on our substantial technical capabilities and rapid progress in making personalized CAR T and TCR cell therapies for people with cancer. As we advance our industry-leading cell therapy pipeline and seek to help a growing number of people with cancer, expanding and investing in our manufacturing capabilities is essential,” said Tim Moore, Executive Vice President of Technical Operations at Kite. “With the Frederick County site, we will have the opportunity to build and design the facility tailored to our own innovative processes and with state-of-the-art features that will enable us to meet the future needs for cell therapies.”
CAR T therapies require many complex and carefully controlled, multi-step processes. The Frederick County facility will become part of Kite’s growing commercial manufacturing network that includes sites in California and the Netherlands.
Yescarta is a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy indicated for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) not otherwise specified, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma, high grade B-cell lymphoma, and DLBCL arising from follicular lymphoma.
Source: Company Press Release