LONDON and Gaithersburg, Md., Oct. 20, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Autolus Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: AUTL), an early commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing and delivering next-generation programmed T cell therapies, announces that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 1 BOBCAT trial of obecabtagene autoleucel (obe-cel) in patients with progressive multiple sclerosis (PMS). The patient was treated at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), a leading CAR T and neurological disorders treatment center in the United Kingdom and, with UCL, development partner of Autolus for obe-cel.
"Progressive MS is a debilitating disease, and there are limited treatment options available, particularly for those whose disease continues to deteriorate despite long-term treatment with currently available B-cell targeting therapies," said UCLH consultant neurologist Wallace Brownlee, principal investigator on the trial. "Obe-cel's CAR T mediated B-cell depletion approach holds the promise of suppressing both autoimmune and CNS-compartmentalized inflammatory pathways which play key roles in driving disease. If successful in clinical trials, obe-cel could transform outcomes for PMS patients with a one-time treatment. This is an extremely exciting prospect, and I look forward to participating in the study so we can explore obe-cel's potential in this devastating disease."
The Phase 1 trial, expected to include up to 18 adult patients, will evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of obe-cel in participants with refractory progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. The primary endpoint is to assess safety and tolerability of obe-cel. Preliminary data will also be collected on the efficacy and biological effect of obe-cel using change from baseline in standard efficacy measures.
"Dosing the first patient in PMS is an important milestone for Autolus and the MS community. We believe obe-cel's mechanism of action, underpinned by its unique fast-off rate CAR mechanism, makes obe-cel well-suited to address aberrant inflammatory and immune pathways for PMS patients. Given obe-cel's well-characterized safety profile having been studied in more than 400 patients to date, we are hopeful about the impact this therapy can have for this patient population in need of new treatment options," said Dr. Matthias Will, Chief Development Officer of Autolus.