BioSpectrum Asia - April 2024

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Addressing Accessibility and Affordability of CELL & GENE THERAPIES
Cell and gene therapies (CGT) are one of the hottest sectors in the pharmaceutical industry. Quite a few companies in the field are making remarkable advancements toward potentially curative treatments for challenging diseases using groundbreaking science. With lower R&D development costs than in advanced markets, China is becoming an attractive market for the development of CGT, and therefore may emerge as a strong competitor of overseas-made CGT, notes a
GlobalData report. Bayer AG, recently announced the global expansion of its life science incubator network, Bayer Co. Lab, to Shanghai, China and Kobe, Japan. The new site in China will focus on oncology and CGT innovations. While India lags behind China in the production of cell and gene therapies, a wave of new biotech startups is emerging to address this challenge. Immuneel Therapeutics and ImmunoACT are currently developing CAR-T cell therapies. The latter’s NexCAR19 therapy received approval from India's Central Drug Standards Control organisation (CDSCO) for treating relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphomas and leukaemia. Despite a steady stream of regulatory approvals and promising growth prospects, the high manufacturing costs associated with these therapies often render them inaccessible to the majority of patients. To address this issue, companies are actively striving to streamline and optimise the highly intricate and labour-intensive process of cell and gene therapy manufacturing.