Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen has unveiled longer-term results from its phase 1b/2 study of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) showing the drug, which is being studied as a treatment for patients with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma, kept a large number of participants alive and progression-free.

According to Sen Zhuang, Janssen’s vice president of clinical research development, an estimated 89 percent of patients remained alive and 77 percent of patients’ cancers were progression-free after one year of follow-up in the 97-participant trial.

“Heavily pretreated patients, including those who were triple-class refractory, achieved an impressive response following a single infusion of ciltacabtagene autoleucel,” said Deepu Madduri, the study’s principal investigator. “These data continue to show consistent efficacy of this novel CAR-T in the treatment of this highly refractory patient population.”