RJ $BLUE Teclistamab Dose Escalation Duration of Response is Impressive #ASCO20 #ASCO2020
On Saturday during the ASCO 2020 virtual event, Dr. Usmani provided a presentation
on the current dose escalation data for JNJ's teclistamab and Dr. Martin provided a
discussant presentation of the BCMA targeted therapy landscape for multiple myeloma. The
presentations confirmed our suspicion from the ASCO abstracts (Link to Note) that teclistamab
may be emerging as a more effective therapy than bb2121 – which could dim the commercial
potential of bb2121 significantly. Datasets previously presented for the BCMA infusion class
(ADC or CD3) class have not looked as comparable to the CAR+ T Cell transplant approach
(bb2121), but teclistamab clearly looks different based upon the dataset provided today. As Dr.
Martin highlighted, the response rates of BCMA CAR+ T Cell have been impressive for late line
MM patients, but the duration of response has been disappointing (specifically mentioned that
‘bb2121￿does￿not￿appear￿to￿provide￿a￿durable￿response’). Inside the report we provide a cross
comparison table of the BCMA CAR+ T Cell therapy outcomes as well.
Swim-plot of teclistamab (screenshot below) suggests an encouraging duration of response:
From the teclistamab IV doses of 38.4 – 270 μg/kg, the swim-plot of responders suggests that at
a median of 8 months of follow-up, ~76% of patients had ongoing responses. Also interestingly,
for the 10 patients with follow-up beyond 8 months, 80% of those patients still had responses
ongoing, with one patient remaining in a complete response at month 19. This early teclistamab
data supports plausibility that the mDoR for the 270 or 720 μg/kg dose levels could eclipse
the 9.9 month mDoR reported for the 300m cell dose of bb2121 and the 11.3 month mDoR
for the 450m cell dose. The response rate profile of teclistamab will also be key to delivering
a stronger median progression free survival versus bb2121, as currently the 67% ORR and
25% CR rate at the 270 μg/kg is comparable to the 300m cell dose for bb2121 (69% ORR and
29% CR), but below the 450m cell dose 82% ORR and 39% CR rate presented for the KarMMa
study

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