Gamida Cell Reports First Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Provides Company Update
Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), an advanced cell therapy company committed to cures for blood cancers and serious blood diseases, today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The company also highlighted progress with omidubicel, an advanced cell therapy with positive Phase 3 clinical data, as a potentially life-saving treatment option for patients in need of an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell (bone marrow) transplant, and GDA-201, a natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy in Phase 1/2 development for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
“In the first quarter of this year, we made significant progress on key initiatives across all functions of our business, starting with omidubicel, a potentially transformative treatment option for patients with hematological malignancies,” said Julian Adams, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Gamida Cell. “We are working diligently to bring this novel therapy to patients, with submission of a BLA to the FDA anticipated in the fourth quarter of this year. We are progressing well with our manufacturing readiness activities in response to the clear feedback from the FDA regarding registration of our commercial manufacturing facilities and are actively building our launch readiness capabilities, including market access and support services, to ensure a positive patient experience at transplant at the time of potential FDA approval.”
“We also continue to expand our clinical pipeline with plans to submit an IND for our GDA-201 natural killer cell therapy, initiate a multi-center Phase 1/2 clinical study in NHL and continue to advance our R&D activities to pursue the development of genetically modified NAM-enabled NK cells in solid tumors. Importantly, we are well positioned to deliver our 2021 corporate goals and objectives toward improving the lives of the patients we serve,” Dr. Adams continued.
Omidubicel, a proprietary, investigational advanced cell therapy for allogeneic bone marrow transplant
Omidubicel is the foundational product based on Gamida Cell's proprietary cell expansion technology. During the quarter, Gamida Cell continued to advance omidubicel, the first cell therapy for bone marrow transplant to receive Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The company anticipates submitting a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the FDA in the fourth quarter of this year, based on the results of an international, randomized Phase 3 study of omidubicel that was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of omidubicel in patients with hematologic malignancies undergoing a bone marrow transplant compared to patients who received a standard umbilical cord blood transplant. The study achieved its primary endpoint, a statistically significant reduction in time to neutrophil engraftment, as well as all key secondary endpoints. A key milestone in a patient’s recovery, neutrophil engraftment is a measure of how quickly the stem cells a patient receives in a bone marrow transplant are established and begin to make healthy new cells. In the recently completed Phase 3 study, the median time to neutrophil engraftment was 12 days for patients randomized to omidubicel compared to 22 days for the comparator group (p < 0.001). Additionally, the study met key secondary endpoints related to the speed of platelet engraftment, decrease in infections and reduction in hospitalizations, all significant clinical measures in bone marrow transplant.
In February 2021, the company presented details of the results of the omidubicel Phase 3 study at the Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research. The study’s intent-to-treat analysis included 125 patients aged 13–65 years with a median age of 41. Patients were enrolled at more than 30 clinical centers in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Racial and ethnic diversity and baseline characteristics which were well-balanced across the two study groups. Diseases included acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome or lymphoma.
In addition to the efficacy results described above, safety results were also presented, showing decreased incidence related to grade III/IV acute GvHD (14 percent for omidubicel, 21 percent for the comparator) and comparable results for all grades chronic GvHD at one year (35 percent for omidubicel, 29 percent for the comparator). Transplants with umbilical cord blood, the comparator, have been historically shown to result in low incidence of GvHD in relation to other graft sources and, in this study, omidubicel demonstrated a similar GvHD profile.
The data from the study relating to exploratory endpoints also supported the clinical benefit demonstrated by the study’s primary and secondary endpoints. The rate of infection was significantly reduced for patients randomized to omidubicel, with the cumulative incidence of first grade II or grade III bacterial or invasive fungal infection for patients randomized to omidubicel of 37 percent, compared to 57 percent for the comparator (p = 0.027). Additionally, the study demonstrated a reduction in the incidence of viral infections. Non-relapse mortality was 11 percent for patients randomized to omidubicel and 24 percent for patients randomized to the comparator (p=0.09). Overall survival at 15 months following randomization was 73 percent for patients randomized to omidubicel and 62 percent for patients randomized to control (p=0.16), median overall survival was not yet reached. Non-relapse mortality and overall survival were exploratory endpoints that were not powered for statistical significance. When considering the
