Gamida Cell Announces Dosing of First Patient in Company-Sponsored Phase 1/2 Study of NK Cell Therapy Candidate GDA-201

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), the leader in the development of NAM-enabled cell therapy candidates for patients with hematologic and solid cancers and other serious diseases, announces dosing of the first patient in a company-sponsored Phase 1/2 study evaluating a cryopreserved, readily available formulation of GDA-201 for the treatment of follicular and diffuse large B cell lymphomas (NCT05296525).

“We are excited to further advance the development of GDA-201, a NAM-enabled natural killer (NK) cell therapy candidate which we believe has the potential to be a new readily available, cryopreserved treatment option for cancer patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoma,” said Ronit Simantov, M.D., chief medical and scientific officer of Gamida Cell. “Our NK cells elicited an adaptive immune response in patients in the previous investigator-sponsored study with the fresh formulation of GDA-201, potentially leading to durable remissions. We are truly grateful for the contribution of all the participants and clinical collaborators who will allow us to continue studying GDA-201 in this multi-center open label trial.”

The Phase 1 portion of the study is a dose escalation phase, designed to evaluate the safety of GDA-201, and will include patients with follicular lymphoma (FL), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)/high grade B-cell lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma or mantle cell lymphoma. The Phase 2 expansion phase is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of GDA-201 in 63 patients comprised of two cohorts of patients with either FL or DLBCL. The study will include patients who have relapsed or refractory lymphoma after at least two prior treatments, which may include CAR-T or stem cell transplant.

“Interest in NK cell therapies has increased in recent years as a potential alternative to current cell therapies, as NK cells have the potential to be effective in hematological and solid tumors while avoiding common safety issues,” said Veronika Bachanova, M.D., Ph.D., University of Minnesota. “We are particularly excited about Gamida’s cryopreserved formulation of GDA-201, which has potential as a new treatment option for patients.”

GDA-201 leverages Gamida Cell’s proprietary NAM (nicotinamide) technology platform to expand the number and functionality of NK cells to direct tumor cell killing properties and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). In an investigator-sponsored Phase 1/2 study in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma, treatment with the fresh formulation of GDA-201 with rituximab demonstrated significant clinical activity. Of the 19 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), 13 complete responses and one partial response were observed, with an overall response rate of 74% and a complete response rate of 68%. Two-year data on outcomes and cytokine biomarkers associated with survival data demonstrated a median duration of response of 16 months (range 5-36 months) and an overall survival at two years of 78% (95% CI, 51%–91%). In this study, GDA-201 was well-tolerated and no dose-limiting toxicities were observed in 19 patients with NHL and 16 patients with multiple myeloma. The most common Grade 3/4 adverse events were thrombocytopenia, hypertension, neutropenia, febrile neutropenia, and anemia. There were no incidents of cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxic events, graft versus host disease or marrow aplasia.