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ImmunityBio Announces Insurance Coverage of ANKTIVA® Across Multiple States with First Commercial Doses Administered Just Weeks After FDA Approval—Opening New Era for Immunotherapy Beyond Checkpoint Inhibitors
Multiple patients treated across the U.S. with ANKTIVA less than eight weeks after FDA approval of first-in-class cytokine immunotherapy for BCG unresponsive
About this update from Immunitybio, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\nMultiple patients treated across the U.S. with ANKTIVA less than eight weeks after FDA approval of first-in-class cytokine immunotherapy for BCG unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer\n\n\n\nANKTIVA launch initiates the next era of immunotherapy beyond checkpoint inhibitors that is based on cytokines and natural killer (NK) cells\n\n\n\nANKTIVA’s novel mechanism of action activates the body’s immune system of natural killer and killer T cells to attack BCG resistant tumor cells and induce memory T cells resulting in a long duration of complete response exceeding 47 months1\n\n\n\nANKTIVA reimbursement now covered by multiple healthcare plans\n\n\n\nUrologists treating eligible bladder cancer patients can learn more about the treatment option and access support program ImmunityBio CARE™ at Anktiva.com\n\n\n\n CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nImmunityBio, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBRX) today announced the initial treatment of multiple patients in the United States to receive therapy with ANKTIVA® (nogapendekin alfa inbakicept-pmln), ImmunityBio’s recently approved immunotherapy for Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) carcinoma in situ. ANKTIVA was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 22, 2024 for the treatment of patients with BCG-unresponsive NMIBC CIS with or without papillary tumors.\n\n\nThe intravesical therapy employs a combination of ANKTIVA, an IL-15 agonist in combination with BCG. The combination is the first FDA-approved immunotherapy in NMIBC that functions by activating the body’s NK and killer T-cell immune system to attack tumor cells, while simultaneously activating memory T cells, leading to a prolonged duration of complete response exceeding 47 months for some patients.\n\n\n“We are grateful to be able to offer this first-in-class immunotherapy to qualified bladder cancer patients less than two months after the therapeutic was approved by the FDA,” said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., Executive Chairman and Global Chief Scientific and Medical Officer at ImmunityBio. “The interest in this next era of immunotherapy beyond checkpoint inhibitors—the era of cytokines—from urologists treating NMIBC patients has been strong and we look forward to offering more patients an alternative to bladder removal.”\n\n\nThe first patients to receive...