company traded as nasdaq kite industry biopharmaceutical founded 2009 founder arie belldegrun headquarters santa monica california key people arie belldegrun chairman president and ceo cynthia butitta coo david chang cmo margo roberts cso shawn tomasello cmo paul jenkinson cfo 1 products cancer immunotherapy website www.kitepharma.com kite pharma is a publicly held clinical stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of novel cancer immunotherapy products with a primary focus on engineered autologous t cell therapy eact designed to restore the immune system s ability to recognize and eradicate tumors . 2 the santa monica california based company was founded in 2009 by arie belldegrun m.d. facs an israeli american oncologist who serves as the company s chairman president and chief executive officer . 1 contents 1 pipeline 2 development history 2.1 2012 2.2 2013 2.3 2014 2.4 2015 2.5 2016 3 business history 4 references 5 external links pipeline edit kte c19 zuma 3 is an investigational therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia all in which a patient s t cells are genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor designed to target the antigen cd19 a protein expressed on the cell surface of b cell lymphomas and leukemias . 3 it has us fda breakthrough therapy designation dec 2015 for the treatment of patients with refractory diffuse large b cell lymphoma dlbcl primary mediastinal b cell lymphoma pmbcl and transformed follicular lymphoma tfl . 4 development history edit 2012 edit in october kite pharma entered into a cooperative research and development agreement crada with the national cancer institute nci for the development and commercialization of eact products for the treatment of multiple cancer indications . 5 2013 edit in december the company announced data in its lead clinical development program with the nci demonstrating that kite s most advanced immunotherapy product candidate kte c19 car can produce robust and durable tumor shrinkage in patients with an aggressive form of non hodgkin s lymphoma known as diffuse large b cell lymphoma dlbcl . 6 the clinical data were presented at the 55th american society of hematology ash annual meeting . 7 2014 edit in march the company announced that the u.s. food and drug administration fda office of orphan products development granted orphan drug designation for the company s proposed therapy for dlbcl . 8 in june kite pharma entered into an exclusive worldwide license with the national institutes of health nih to certain intellectual property related to tcr based product candidates that target the ny eso 1 antigen for the treatment of cancers expressing ny eso 1 . 9 in august kite pharma announced findings from its ongoing clinical trial 12 of 13 evaluable patients with advanced b cell malignancies had complete remissions 8 patients or partial remissions 4 patients resulting in a 92 % objective response rate . the results support kite pharma s plan to file an investigational new drug ind application in the fourth quarter of 2014 to initiate a clinical trial of kite pharma s lead car based product candidate kte c19 in patients with dlbcl . 10 2015 edit in january kite pharma and amgen entered into a strategic research collaboration and license agreement to develop and commercialize the next generation of novel chimeric antigen receptor car t cell immunotherapies based on kite s engineered autologous cell therapy eact platform and amgen s extensive array of cancer targets . 11 12 in may kite pharma announced that the first patient in its phase 1 2 clinical trial of kte c19 in patients with refractory aggressive non hodgkin s lymphoma has been treated . 13 in june kite pharma and bluebird bio inc. announced they have entered into a collaboration agreement to co develop and co commercialize second generation t cell receptor product candidates directed against the human papillomavirus type 16 e6 oncoprotein incorporating gene editing and lentiviral technologies . 14 in july kite pharma and the leukemia & lymphoma society lls announced that they have entered into a partnership to enhance the development of kite s lead product candidate kte c19 for the treatment of patients with refractory aggressive non hodgkin s lymphoma . 15 in september kite pharma announced that it has expanded its collaboration with the netherlands cancer institute nki . kite and the nki have entered into an agreement under which kite will receive from the nki the exclusive option to license multiple t cell receptor tcr gene sequences for the development and commercialization of cancer immunotherapy candidates targeting solid tumors . kite has also expanded its access to additional resources and research facilities through a master services agreement with the nki . 16 in october kite pharma announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide license with the national institutes of health nih for intellectual property related to t cell receptor tcr based product candidates directed against mage a3 and a3 a6 antigens for the treatment of tumors expressing mage which include lung pancreatic gastric and breast cancers among others . 17 in the same month kite pharma announced that it has entered into a worldwide research and license agreement with alpine immune sciences ais a privately held biotechnology startup to discover and develop protein based immunotherapies targeting the immune synapse to treat cancer . ais will grant kite an exclusive license to two programs from its transmembrane immunomodulatory protein tip technology which kite plans to further engineer into chimeric antigen receptor car and t cell receptor tcr product candidates . this collaboration will accelerate kite s efforts to establish the next generation of engineered t cell therapies specifically designed to overcome the inhibitory mechanisms present in the tumor microenvironment . 18 19 in december kite pharma announced that it has initiated a phase 1 2 clinical study of kte c19 zuma 3 for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia all . kte c19 is an investigational therapy in which a patient s t cells are genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor designed to target the antigen cd19 a protein expressed on the cell surface of b cell lymphomas and leukemias . 3 in the same month kite pharma and ge global research announced they will partner to develop a next generation functionally integrated and automated manufacturing system for engineered t cell therapy . kite and ge global research ge s centralized r & d hub said they aim to increase the availability of engineered t cell therapies by speeding up development of automation technologies that have the potential to lower costs operate faster and minimize variability . 20 also in december kite announced that the u.s. food and drug administration fda has granted breakthrough therapy designation status to the company s lead product candidate kte c19 for the treatment of patients with refractory diffuse large b cell lymphoma dlbcl primary mediastinal b cell lymphoma pmbcl and transformed follicular lymphoma tfl . 4 2016 edit it was announced that kite pharma will present at the 34th annual j.p. morgan healthcare conference in january 2016 . 21 also in january it was announced that kite pharma has entered into a cooperative research and development agreement crada with the nci for the research and clinical development of a fully human anti cd19 chimeric antigen receptor car product candidate for the treatment of b cell lymphomas and leukemias . 22 moreover kite pharma announced that its european subsidiary has entered into a research and license agreement with leiden university medical center lumc to identify and develop t cell receptor tcr product candidates targeting solid tumors that are associated with the human papillomavirus hpv type 16 infection . 23 in march kite pharma has announced that it would be collaborating with genentech in order to evaluate the safety and efficacy of two of its novel therapies . the target population for the tests would be patients suffering from non hodgkin lymphoma . the therapies in question kte c19 and atezolizumab would be tested in combination with each other . 24 in june kite pharma and cell design labs inc. announced a research collaboration and license agreement to develop next generation precision controlled chimeric antigen receptor car product candidates that incorporate cell design labs molecular on off switch technology . 25 also in june kite pharma announced that it has entered into a new cooperative research and development agreement crada with the experimental transplantation and immunology branch etib of the national cancer institute nci for the research and clinical development of t cell receptor tcr product candidates directed against human papillomavirus hpv 16 e6 and e7 oncoproteins for the treatment of hpv associated cancers . 26 in july kite pharma announced that it has entered into an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the regents of the university of california on behalf of the university of california los angeles ucla for technology to advance the development of off the shelf allogeneic t cell therapies from renewable pluripotent stem cells . 27 business history edit in march 2011 kite pharma received 15 million in series a venture cash . 28 in may 2013 kite pharma completed a 35 million financing of series a preferred stock . 29 30 31 in april 2014 kite pharma completed a 50 million mezzanine private financing of convertible notes . 32 33 in may 2014 kite pharma filed a registration with the sec for an initial public offering ipo of its common stock . 34 in june 2014 kite pharma sold 8 625 000 shares of its common stock in their ipo at 17.00 per share for gross proceeds of 146.6 million . 35 36 37 the company listed on the nasdaq global market under the symbol kite . in december 2014 kite pharma sold 4 007 750 shares of it common stock in their follow on offering at 54.00 per share for gross proceeds of 216.4 million . 38 in march 2015 kite pharma acquired t cell factory tcf a privately held biotechnology company based in the netherlands for 20 million and renamed it kite pharma eu . per the deal kite pharma has obtained license agreements with iba gmbh sanquin blood supply foundation and the netherlands cancer institute nki which include the rights to select new intellectual property related to t cell receptors tcrs developed at the nki . additionally the tcf acquisition will allow kite pharma to access the european manufacturing facilities paving way for the company to initiate development programs in the eu and build its presence in the region . 39 40 in december 2015 kite pharma sold 4 168 750 shares of its common stock in a public offering at 69.00 per share for gross proceeds of 287.6 million . 41 references edit a b team kite pharma . kite pharma . retrieved 2 june 2016 . about kite pharma . kite pharma . retrieved 21 january 2015 . a b kite pharma kite announces initiation of kte c19 phase 1 2 . streetinsider . 2 december 2015 . retrieved 2 december 2015 . a b kite pharma kite announces kte c19 for nhl granted fda breakthrough therapy designation . streetinsider . 7 december 2015 . retrieved 7 december 2015 . kite pharma partners with the national cancer institute to develop novel cellular immunotherapy clinical products . kite pharma . 16 october 2012 . retrieved 15 august 2014 . kite pharma s lead program with the national cancer institute nci demonstrates positive results in patients with aggressive non hodgkin s lymphoma . kite pharma . 7 december 2013 . retrieved 15 august 2014 . donor derived allogeneic t cells may cause regression of b cell malignancies . hemonc today . 7 december 2013 . retrieved 15 august 2014 . kite pharma announces fda orphan drug designation for anti cd19 t cell cancer immunotherapy product . kite pharma . 31 march 2014 . retrieved 19 may 2014 . kite pharma announces exclusive license with the national institutes of health for t cell receptor