Gilead’s Kite snares a land­mark FDA OK on a $373,000 CAR-T ther­a­py — which comes with brag­ging rights to the first true fran­chise op

While many of the top play­ers in the im­muno-on­col­o­gy field have shift­ed their fo­cus to new and bet­ter CAR-Ts in the pipeline, one of the pi­o­neers in the field is now proud­ly lay­ing claim to a land­mark achieve­ment — gain­ing a sec­ond OK and cre­at­ing the first com­mer­cial CAR-T port­fo­lio.

“We’re about to be­come the first com­pa­ny with a cell ther­a­py fran­chise,” says Ken Takeshi­ta, head of glob­al de­vel­op­ment at Kite Ther­a­peu­tics, a sub­sidiary of Gilead. The drug will be mar­ket­ed as Tecar­tus and sold for $373,000, ac­cord­ing to a com­pa­ny spokesper­son on Fri­day.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER