Legend Biotech dual-target CAR-T shows early efficacy in lymphoma

Legend Biotech (NASDAQ:LEGN) announced encouraging initial clinical data from an ongoing Phase 1 study evaluating LB2501, its experimental in vivo CD19/CD20 dual-targeting CAR-T therapy, for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The preliminary findings, slated for full presentation at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2026 Congress in Stockholm, Sweden, highlight the early therapeutic and safety profile of the novel candidate.

LB2501 is designed as an in vivo chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy that targets both CD19 and CD20 antigens simultaneously, aiming to counter single-antigen escape mechanisms that are frequently associated with disease relapse in aggressive lymphomas.

In the second dose cohort of the dose-escalation study, the therapeutic candidate achieved an overall response rate of 100%, with six out of six evaluated patients responding to the treatment.

Within this specific cohort, the complete response rate reached 83.3%, representing five out of six patients.

All recorded patient responses remained active and ongoing at the time of the data cutoff.

Clinical monitoring also confirmed robust, dose-dependent in vivo CAR-T cell expansion across the treated subjects.

The safety assessment from the trial indicated that the regimen was well tolerated by the study participants.

The investigation recorded no dose-limiting toxicities, serious adverse events, or patient deaths.

Furthermore, there were no reported incidents of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome, an adverse neurological event often monitored in cellular immunotherapies.