Phil Cyr, Senior Vice President, Precision Value & Health, discussed challenges to tackle with CAR T-cell therapies.
“Presently, probably about 80% of individuals who could be candidates for cell and gene therapies don't get them because of the ability to get enough manufactured, especially autologous cell therapies. So that's an inherent challenge. Another inherent challenge is the reimbursement system within the US. Reimbursement does not necessarily match up to the way cell and gene therapies are delivered.”
While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has demonstrated its ability to produce responses in refractory tumors, many challenges remain with the therapies. The Ambassador Reception and Panel Discussion: Predictions for CAR-T Therapeutic Development session was held at the 7th Annual CAR-TCR Summit 2022, September 19-22 in Boston, Massachusetts, to discuss these challenges and progress so far.
The discussion consisted of a multidisciplinary panel of developers, contract development, manufacturing organizations, contract research organizations, and commercialization services. Participants looked at the movement and the growth of cell therapy from a multidisciplinary approach, looked at where the field has come from, where it isnow, and where it may be in the future.
CGTLive spoke with Phil Cyr, Senior Vice President, Precision Value & Health to learn more about challenges that remain in the field and questions and research that remain to be answered. He touched on future areas of research, such as improving scalability, and precision targeting.