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Humanigen, formerly KaloBios, made lenzilumab, an antibody that neutralises GM-CSF to blunt the cytokine storms of CAR-T therapy and COVID-19, before filing for bankruptcy in 2024.
Humanigen developed lenzilumab (KB003), a humanised antibody against granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor. It was studied to prevent cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity in patients receiving axicabtagene ciloleucel for lymphoma, in chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, and in a large randomised trial in hospitalised COVID-19 patients, where the FDA declined emergency authorisation. The company, once KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2024.
Lenzilumab is an antibody that soaks up GM-CSF, a growth signal that chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia cells with RAS mutations are unusually sensitive to. It is being tested with azacitidine in this leukaemia.