The first in a potential multibillion-dollar family of cancer-fighting drugs by Genentech Inc. could offer an off-the-shelf alternative to effective, but limited, cell therapies.
The treatment is called bispecific because the arms of the Y-shaped antibody, an artificial protein, can simultaneously link to two different players in the fight against cancer. That effectively offers a one-two punch against the disease. For now, the FDA approval gives doctors another tool beyond chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR-T, therapies that have been lauded for their potency. CAR-Ts, such as Yescarta from Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Kite Pharma and Novartis AG's Kymriah, use a patient's own cells, which are re-engineered and infused back into them in a process that can take weeks.
Lunsumio — homegrown at Genentech research and early development, or gRED — is the first in what the company believes could be a family of bispecific antibodies that eventually could expand into first-line options for patients, not just for patients who have failed other therapies. "Both of these antibodies are new approaches for treating cancers," Laport said."They are off-the-shelf or ready-to-treat, unlike cell therapies with genetic engineering, and are given for a fixed duration, for a finite amount of time. Patients are less likely to develop side effects."
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