Pierre Fabre Pharmaceuticals has announced agreement with the US FDA on a potential path forward for resubmission of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for Ebvallo (tabelecleucel), an allogeneic EBV-specific T-cell therapy. Alignment on the filing followed a Type A meeting with the agency. The France-based firm is seeking approval for the moelcule in adults and children aged two years and older with relapsed or refractory Epstein-Barr virus-positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+ PTLD) who have received at least one prior therapy, including an anti-CD20-containing regimen.
The Type A meeting, a formal mechanism for sponsors to resolve specific questions following a Complete Response Letter (CRL), produced agreement from the FDA that a single-arm study using an appropriate historical control, conducted in a pre-specified manner, could constitute an adequate and well-controlled study capable of providing safety and efficacy data sufficient to support a marketing application. Pierre Fabre said it would finalize the resubmission plan with the agency in the coming weeks. The company did not disclose a projected resubmission date or anticipated PDUFA target action date.
The planned resubmission will incorporate an updated dataset from the pivotal Phase III single-arm ALLELE study, which enrolled adults and children aged two and older with R/R EBV+ PTLD following either solid organ transplant or hematopoietic cell transplant. The company said the updated package will include additional patients and longer follow-up relative to the dataset previously submitted, alongside unspecified supportive data.
This regulatory update follows a protracted US review history for tabelecleucel. The FDA issued a second CRL in January 2026, citing insufficient evidence of efficacy and stating that the design, conduct, and analysis of the ALLELE trial confounded the interpretability of its results. That determination came after the agency had accepted a resubmitted BLA in July 2025 under Priority Review, assigning a PDUFA date of January 10, 2026. The first CRL, issued to the original BLA holder Atara Biotherapeutics, had cited manufacturing inspection issues rather than clinical data concerns. Pierre Fabre subsequently acquired the US development rights and IND from Atara before submitting the resubmission that generated the second CRL.
Tabelecleucel received marketing authorization in the European Union in December 2022 under the same indication, making the US the primary remaining regulatory target for the product.