Now that Kite Pharma Inc.’s first chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (KTE-C19) is being submitted for US FDA approval, Chairman, President and CEO Arie Belldegrun said it is the right time to think about ways to make the company’s technology available in additional markets, like Japan and China where Kite entered into partnership agreements with Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd., respectively.
Belldegrun told Scrip in a Jan. 9 interview during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco that Kite will hold on to US and European rights to axicabtagene ciloleucel and other CAR-T therapies, but explore partnerships in other territories