Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE)
Thursday after the market closed, Kite Pharma, the leading biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of cell based immunotherapy for the treatment of lymphatic cancers, reported solid third quarter financial results. Kite also reported on milestone advancements in studies of its lead product candidate KTE-C19, and announced completion of its clinical manufacturing facility in California.
CEO Comments
During Kite’s conference call, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Arie Belldegrun was very positive about the quarter, noting:
“The past four months has been an outstanding period of accomplishment and progress for Kite. We are advancing two company-sponsored pivotal clinical trials for engineered T-cell immunotherapy, and we expect to initiate two additional pivotal studies before the end of this year. We also expanded our relationships with leading cancer research centers. Through these relationships and the progress of our own sponsored studies, we believe we possess the most extensive pipeline in the field advancing both chimeric antigen receptor, referred to as CAR and T-cell receptors, or TCR approaches. We completed construction of our clinical supply manufacturing facility in Santa Monica this quarter and we are nearing completion of our commercial manufacturing facility in El Segundo close to the LAX International Airport. The El Segundo location in its current configuration will have the capacity to produce over 4,000 patient therapy per year and given its modular and expandable design will be able to adjust to a growing demand in the future.” Seeking Alpha
KITE Technical Analysis
KITE stock started the year off strong, putting in all time highs of $89.21 by mid January. More recently, KITE has performed significantly better than the Biotech sector since IBB bottomed on September 28, climbing from a low of $50.93 to $83 earlier this week. On the way up it broke through long-term resistance near $77.40. The after-hours reaction to Kite’s third quarter report was muted, suggesting that the news was already reflected in the trading action during the past several days. The $78.25 area has been an important intra-day level all week. A move back down to this level could result in a bounce or reversal. The next significant level of support is the $77.40 level. A move above VWAP and the 9EMA could indicate buyers coming in. I would expect resistance near $80.25, $81 and $81.50.
Kite Pharma, Inc. Company Profile
Kite Pharma, Inc., is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on the development and commercialization of cancer immunotherapy products to eradicate cancer cells. The Company does this using its engineered autologous cell therapy (eACT), which is an approach to the treatment of cancer. eACT involves the genetic engineering of T cells to express either chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or T cell receptors (TCRs). It is conducting a Phase II clinical trial of a TCR-based therapy and multiple Phase I-IIa clinical trials of CAR- and TCR-based therapies. The Company’s lead product candidate KTE-C19, is a CAR-based therapy, for the treatment of refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL) and transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL). It is developing a pipeline of eACT-based product candidates for the treatment of advanced solid and hematological malignancies: CD19CAR, KTE-C19CAR and EGFRvlll CAR, among others. Google Finance
