mucosal pemphigus vulgaris

Cabaletta Bio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of engineered T cell therapies for patients with B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, announced on May 6, 2020 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track Designation for DSG3-CAART (Desmoglein 3 Chimeric AutoAntibody Receptor T cells), the Company’s lead product candidate for treatment of mucosal pemphigus vulgaris (mPV), for improving healing of mucosal blisters in patients with mPV.

“We believe that this Fast Track Designation, coming shortly after the Orphan Drug Designation for DSG3-CAART, further demonstrates that mPV is a devastating, rare disease for which patients have limited treatment options resulting in a large unmet need. The Fast Track Designation represents an important next step in our clinical development plans,” said David J. Chang, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Cabaletta. “We appreciate the benefits provided by this designation, including the opportunity for increased access to the FDA and potential acceleration of our clinical development path and regulatory review process.”

The FDA grants Fast Track Designation to drugs or biologics to facilitate the expedited development and review for therapeutics intended to treat serious or life-threatening conditions and to address unmet medical needs. Companies that receive Fast Track Designation are eligible for several potential benefits including the opportunity for more frequent meetings and interactions with the FDA during clinical development as well as eligibility for accelerated approval and/or priority review, if relevant criteria are met. Companies may also be allowed to submit sections of their Biologics License Application (BLA) on a rolling basis.

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Cabaletta Bio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of engineered T cell therapies for patients with B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, announced on January 29, 2020 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation for the Company’s lead product candidate, DSG3-CAART, for the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris (PV). DSG3-CAART is designed to target the cause of mucosal PV (mPV), B cells that express pathogenic autoantibodies directed against the DSG3 protein, while preserving normal B cell immune function.

“Mucosal pemphigus vulgaris is a rare and potentially fatal, chronic autoimmune disease characterized by the loss of adhesion between cells of mucous membranes, resulting in widespread damage, painful blisters of the mucosal membranes, and increased susceptibility to life-threatening systemic infections,” said David Chang, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Cabaletta. “For affected patients, despite current treatment options, there is an urgent unmet need for more effective and durable therapies that can provide reliable, complete, and persistent remission from the disease beyond general immune suppression and B cell depletion provided by current treatment options. Orphan Drug Designation is an important recognition for investigational therapies for rare diseases and provides us with potentially valuable benefits as we prepare to initiate the DesCAARTes trial to generate and then report acute safety data from the first cohort of patients by the end of 2020.”

The FDA grants Orphan Drug Designation to drugs or biologics intended to treat or prevent rare diseases or conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. This designation qualifies Cabaletta for certain incentives, which may include partial tax credit for clinical trial expenditures, waived user fees and potential eligibility for seven years of marketing exclusivity.

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Cabaletta Bio, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of engineered T cell therapies for the treatment of patients with B cell-mediated autoimmune diseases, announced this week that it has received clearance of its Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate a first-in-human clinical trial of desmoglein 3 chimeric autoantibody receptor T cells (DSG3-CAART) in patients with mucosal pemphigus vulgaris (mPV) to assess the safety and tolerability of DSG3-CAART in these patients. The Company anticipates enrolling the first patient in 2020.

“The FDA’s clearance of our IND for DSG3-CAART is an important milestone for patients with mPV and the first IND clearance for a product candidate from our Cabaletta Approach to selective B cell Ablation (CABA™) platform,” said Steven Nichtberger, M.D., Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Cabaletta Bio. “DSG3-CAART is the first of several CAAR T cell product candidates in our announced pipeline, which includes product candidates targeting patients with MuSK myasthenia gravis, the mucocutaneous form of pemphigus vulgaris (PV), and hemophilia A patients with inhibitors to factor VIII therapy.”

mPV is a potentially fatal, B cell-mediated chronic, rare autoimmune disease that causes painful blisters and sores on mucous membranes of affected patients, leading to severe and sometimes debilitating and life-altering effects. DSG3-CAART is designed to selectively target and eliminate B cells expressing autoantibodies specific for DSG3 that are the cause of mPV while preserving healthy B cell immune function. DSG3-CAART has the potential to generate persistent complete remission off therapy while avoiding the adverse effects of chronic and generalized immunosuppression. Currently available treatment options induce broad immunosuppression, which put the patient at risk of infection and often provide only transient complete remission with subsequent relapses for patients with moderate to severe mPV. Approximately 4,250 patients suffer from mPV in the United States and 6,250 patients in Europe, which accounts for approximately 25% of all PV cases.

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