Months after another lethal setback, Juno finally opts to kill lead CAR-T
Months after one of the worst setbacks in the recent history of drug development left a string of patients dead, Juno has finally decided that it will terminate its lead drug program, hoping for a better outcome with another CAR-T therapy in its pipeline.
Juno CEO Hans Bishop claimed $JUNO that its decision to shelve JCAR015 was all due to the “unexpected” toxicity that it discovered after the drug killed five patients due to cerebral edema, or brain swelling. The second tally of deaths, though, occurred in November, after the company convinced the FDA to swiftly lift a clinical hold on the drug by making the dubious claim that eliminating fludarabine from the preconditioning regimen for patients would resolve the safety issue that had already killed several late-stage cancer patients.
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