Robert Schott
Analyst · Yanan Zhu from Wells Fargo Securities. Your line is now open
Good afternoon. Our development organization remains focused on execution in the clinic, and we are pleased with this quarter’s progress. As Sandy mentioned, enrollment in Pfizer's lead-in study in the Phase III AFFINE trial evaluating our hemophilia A product candidate is complete. The purpose of this study is to collect a minimum of six months of prospective efficacy data of current Factor VIII prophylaxis replacement therapy in patients with hemophilia A to establish baseline characteristics prior to dosing with giroctocogene fitelparvovec in the AFFINE trial. Pfizer expects a pivotal data readout as early as 2022 as well as a two-year update from the Phase I/II Alta study in the fourth quarter of this year. Regarding our Fabry program, we continue to advance the Phase I/II STAAR study, and we have recently enrolled the fourth patient. We plan to present initial data from this study in the fourth quarter of this year. In March, the EMA granted Orphan Designation to BIVV003, now known as SAR445136, our sickle cell disease product candidate partnered with Sanofi. This decision was based in part on early data from three treated patients that had 52 weeks, 13 weeks, and 29 days of follow-up, respectively. In a recently published minutes, the EMA’s Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products determined that preliminary clinical observations, as well as the potential of long-term effects that may obviate the need for frequent treatment suggest a clinically relevant advantage versus hydroxyurea. Last month, Sanofi announced that this program received Fast Track Designation from the FDA. We find the progress on this program encouraging. We and Sanofi expect to present the initial data from the PRECIZN-1 study at a medical meeting by the end of this year, which will reflect a more mature and more comprehensive dataset than the early data shared with the EMA. Regarding our oncology collaboration, as part of their recent portfolio review, Kite made a decision not to submit the KITE-037 IND at this time. We are working closely with Kite to determine the path forward for KITE-037. Our collaboration remains focused on developing best-in-class oncology engineered cell therapies. Together, we believe that Kite’s oncology expertise and development experience paired with Sangamo’s zinc finger platform and cell engineering capabilities positions the collaboration well within the space. Lastly, we are very pleased to have initiated our Phase I/II STEADFAST study earlier than expected. This study is evaluating TX200, our autologous HLA-A2 CAR-Treg cell therapy product candidates in patients receiving an HLA-A2 mismatched kidney from a living donor. Patient recruitment is now open at clinical sites in Belgium and the Netherlands. The primary objective is to assess the safety and tolerability of TX200. Secondary objectives include the incidents of biopsy-confirmed acute graft rejection, incidents of chronic graft rejection and localization of TX200 CAR-Treg cells in the transplant of the kidney. We also plan to evaluate the ability to reduce systemic immunosuppressive therapy, which can be associated with side effects, such as an increased risk of infections or other serious conditions. We plan to enroll up to 15 patients in the group receiving TX200 and up to six patients in a control group. We plan to evaluate three doses with three patients in each dose cohort with the option for an expansion cohort was up to six additional patients. The study will be monitored by an independent Safety Monitoring Committee, which will give its go ahead before moving to the next dose cohort. Patients in the TX200 group will undergo a leukapheresis to collect white blood cells prior to their transplant surgery. We will isolate a subset of Treg cells and modify them to add a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR to allow specific recognition of the HLA-A2 protein present on the cells of the donated kidney. After transplant surgery and a several months recovery period, the patient will receive their one-time individualized TX200 infusion. We expect to enroll the first patient in this study by the end of this year and expect that dosing will occur several months thereafter. We believe that by directing the Treg cells to the transplanted organ by way of the chimeric antigen receptor, TX200 has the potential to mitigate graft rejection and reduce the need for systemic immunosuppression. We see this study is offering an opportunity to demonstrate important proof-of-concept CAR-Treg biology in humans, as well as to better understand CAR-Treg process development. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Scientific Officer, Jason Fontenot for additional details on these research programs. Jason?