Ang. Kymriah og godkjenningen av denne, som er basert på Novartis sin ELARA studie.
Skullerud kommenterte denne på siste pres. 13.05. :
The second part that has changed since we spoke last time is with regards to CAR-T cell therapies. You saw those of you that are close to this, that Novartis came out with a press release just a couple of days ago with regards to the ELARA study and the approval for third-line therapies.
I think there’s a couple of things to notice in that press release. Number one, they’re talking about the toxicity also there, the cytokine release syndrome. The neurotoxicity of the product is occurring in cytokine release syndrome, it’s approximately 50% of patients. Neurotoxicity, somewhere between 20% and 30% of patients. This is still a fairly toxic regimen.
And for those of you that are interested, I would refer you to a review that was done back in September 2021 in the oncology journal in the U.S. because that is, in my point – from my point of view, third-party confirmation of what we’ve been saying all along with regards to CAR-Ts. The results are impressive, no doubt.
However, there’s toxicity that you have to take into consideration. There is a cost of treatment that you have to take into consideration. And most importantly, there is a cost for the health care system when you use a CAR-T that you have to take into consideration. These patients that get a CAR-T will have to be in a hospital for weeks. They have to move away from their homes for weeks. For these 3 reasons, the cost, toxicity and the cost of the health care system, a lot of patients are saying no to the treatment.
And even the top opinion leaders out there are saying this is a great treatment, but only for the few: the healthy, the fit, relatively in this case. It is not for the elderly and the frail. Where are we positioning Betalutin? In the elderly and the frail. So this is why we feel, from a competitive point of view, we still have a big space for Betalutin.