Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:KITE) Files An 8-K Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers
Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers.

On September22, 2017, the Compensation Committee (the “Committee”) of the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Kite Pharma, Inc. accelerated the vesting, effective as of September 25, 2017, of the following performance-based restricted stock units (“RSUs”) granted to the named executive officers in April 2017: Mr.Jenkinson, 2,500 RSUs; Ms.Butitta, 8,000 RSUs; Dr.Chang, 15,000 RSUs; Mr.Moore, 8,000 RSUs and Ms.Tomasello, 4,500 RSUs. The Committee also, effective as of the same date, accelerated the vesting of certain other performance-based equity awards, resulting in the acceleration of 5,000 RSUs granted to Ms.Tomasello in November 2015 and 75,000 stock options granted to Mr.Moore in March 2016.

In addition, the Committee recommended to the Board that vesting of 50,000 of the RSUs granted to Dr.Belldegrun in April 2017 be accelerated and on September25, 2017, such acceleration was approved by the Board.

About Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ:KITE)

Kite Pharma, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. The Company is focused on the development and commercialization of cancer immunotherapy products to eradicate cancer cells. The Company offers engineered autologous cell therapy (eACT), which is an approach to the treatment of cancer. It is conducting over four pivotal studies of its lead product candidate, KTE-C19, a CAR-based therapy. It is conducting a Phase II clinical trial (ZUMA-1) of KTE-C19 in patients with refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), including primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma (PMBCL) and transformed follicular lymphoma (TFL). It is also conducting a Phase II clinical trial (ZUMA-2) of KTE-C19 in patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), a Phase I-II clinical trial (ZUMA-3) of KTE-C19 in adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and a Phase I-II clinical trial (ZUMA-4) of KTE-C19 in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory ALL.