David Barrett, JD, on Future Trends for Genomic Medicines
The chief executive officer of ASGCT discussed likely future trends extrapolated from the organization’s Q3 Landscape Report.
“We're looking forward to being able to provide education, training, and awareness to physicians so they know how to follow patients who have had a gene therapy, whether it's for the indications that those physicians are following them for, or if it's for other indications.”
Although gene therapy and cell therapy are still largely considered an emergent area of medicine, their share of FDA-approved products and active clinical trials has rapidly expanded in recent years. Indeed, despite market fluctuations, more and more companies focused on these modalities have continued to launch, and such programs continue to be pursued in academic institutions, as well. As such, it has become increasingly clear that cell therapies and gene therapies are here to stay.
Nowadays, many doctors and other healthcare providers may not yet have gene therapy or cell therapy products available for indications relevant to their practice, but this could certainly change in the future as more products are approved. In addition, even if a doctor or healthcare provider does not deal directly with cell therapy or gene therapy, they may now or in the future be treating patients who have previously received such therapies. Therefore, familiarity with these modalities will become increasingly important across all branches of medicine, especially because many cell therapy and gene therapy products can have long-lasting, and potentially lifelong effects, despite the fact that many are administered as one-time doses.
The aforementioned trends were inferred by David Barrett, JD, the chief executive officer of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), with regard to findings from ASGCT’s quarterly “Gene, Cell, & RNA Therapy Landscape Report”, which collects data on industry trends in the field of cell therapy and gene therapy, such as new FDA approvals of products, the initiation of new trials, the launch of startup biotech companies, and more. Following the release of the Landscape Report for 2024’s third quarter, CGTLive® interviewed Barret to get his insight on what the latest trends imply for the field. In addition to the inferences alluded to above, Barret also discussed the rising prominence of gene editing, noting that the total number of programs utilizing gene editing for therapeutic purposes has continued to increase.
