Updated Follow-up of the Alta Study, a Phase 1/2, Open Label, Adaptive, Dose-Ranging Study to Assess the Safety and Tolerability of SB-525 Gene Therapy in Adult Patients with Severe Hemophilia A

Introduction: Hemophilia A is a rare blood disorder caused by an F8 variant resulting in insufficient Factor VIII (FVIII) activity. Updated results and follow-up of an ongoing gene therapy study in patients with severe hemophilia A are presented.

Methods: The Alta study is a dose-ranging, single-dose study of SB-525 gene therapy, a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV6) vector encoding an F8 gene. SB-525 was injected into 11 patients in 4 cohorts of 2 patients each across 4 ascending doses (9e11, 2e12, 1e13 and 3e13 vg/kg) with expansion of the high dose cohort by 3 additional patients. Endpoints included: safety events, changes in circulating FVIII activity, FVIII antigen, FVIII usage, and frequency and severity of bleeding.

Results: In the third cohort (1e13 vg/kg), a single infusion of SB-525 resulted in stable and clinically relevant increases in FVIII activity. Patients in the fourth cohort (high dose, 3e13 vg/kg) achieved FVIII levels within the normal range (Table 1), with no bleeding events reported up to 24 weeks post-injection. Patients treated at 3e13 vg/kg did not require FVIII replacement therapy following the initial prophylactic period of up to approximately 3 weeks post-SB-525 administration. No bleeding events were observed in any of the patients treated at the 3e13 vg/kg dose. One patient had a treatment-related serious adverse event of hypotension and fever, with symptoms of headache and tachycardia, which occurred ~6 hours after completion of the vector infusion and resolved with treatment within 24 hours. In the three first cohorts, no ALT elevation requiring more than 7 days of corticosteroid treatment was observed. Of the 5 patients treated to date in the high dose cohort, 3 followed for at least 8 weeks showed transient and mild (grade 1) ALT elevations. All responded to corticosteroids within one week. At the time of abstract submission, all patients were off corticosteroids. FVIII antigen was assessed by ELISA, and preliminary results from the high dose cohort showed a good correlation by chromogenic assay between the specific activity of SB-525 derived FVIII and Xyntha, a recombinant B-domain deleted protein control. Dosing in the fourth cohort is ongoing, and additional analyses of the trial data including FVIII levels, bleeding rate and factor usage will be presented as available. Four- to 11-month follow-up data on all patients in the fourth dose cohort will also be presented.

Conclusions: To date, treatment with a single infusion of SB-525 gene therapy resulted in dose-dependent and sustained increases in FVIII levels, with a substantial decrease in FVIII usage, and no bleeding episodes recorded in the highest dose cohort. Patients treated in the highest dose cohort achieved FVIII activity in the normal range. No ALT elevations persisting longer than 7 days were observed in the first three dose cohorts. The study is ongoing, and the results support further development of SB-525 for the treatment of severe Hemophilia A.

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