Kite Pharma’s Tecartus Gains UK Recommendation for Lymphoma

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says certain patients with mantle-cell lymphoma can be considered for treatment with Tecartus, a personalized therapy developed by Kite Pharma, a Gilead Sciences subsidiary.

NICE says the treatment can be considered for patients with relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma who previously received a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, such as ibrutinib, and it is recommending the therapy for use by the National Health Service.

Tecartus is a CAR-T therapy that uses a patient’s white blood cells as modified in a laboratory to attack cancer cells before being infused back into the patient.