Legend Biotech says it plans to further boost Carvykti manufacturing as the company and its partner Johnson & Johnson look to stay ahead in the CAR-T race against competitors Bristol Myers Squibb and 2seventy bio.
“We continue to see growth in patient demand and we’re reiterating our expectation for pronounced growth for Carvykti in the second half of the year, as we continue to add more slots and expand our capacity,” Legend CEO Ying Huang told investors during its second-quarter earnings call on Friday, according to an AlphaSense transcript.
J&J and Legend are being “creative” about finding future manufacturing capacity, Huang said. This could involve building a new site from scratch, or taking over a preexisting or unused facility, he added.
For now, Legend is expecting its facility in Ghent, Belgium to be approved for commercial Carvykti production by the end of September to cater to the European market, Huang said.
Construction of Legend’s other facility in Ghent, called Tech Lane, is expected to be finished by the end of the year. Tech Lane will manufacture Carvykti for clinical supply in the first half of 2025, followed by commercial production in the second half, Huang said.
In an existing site in Raritan, NJ, it is also undergoing expansions to boost commercial production in the second half of next year.
On top of its internal capacity, its third party contractor Novartis is expected to start commercial production of Carvykti in Morris Plains, NJ, in the first half of next year, Huang said. The companies partnered in April 2023 and since then Novartis has only been making Carvykti for clinical supply.
The CAR-T competitors have been racing to get their products in earlier lines of treatment. In April, Bristol Myers and 2seventy bio secured a label expansion for Abecma as a third-line treatment for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. A few days later, J&J and Legend got an approval for Carvykti in second-line treatment.
There’s a queue for Carvykti patients in the second-line setting in hospitals, Huang added. Carvykti was originally approved by the FDA in 2022 for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after four or more prior lines of therapy.
Carvykti pulled in $186 million in sales in the second quarter of the year, above analysts’ estimates of $169 million and ahead of Abecma, which made $95 million in the same period. In 2023, Carvykti made $500 million in sales, while Abecma raked in $358 million.
Aside from building Carvykti factories, Legend is also planning to build a new research center in Philadelphia for cell therapies, Huang said.
Abecma manufacturing is also being ramped up. Bristol Myers is boosting manufacturing to “meet unconstrained demand” after supply issues following a manufacturing shutdown over planned maintenance last year.