Jacques Galipeau, MD, on Exponential Progress With Cell and Gene Therapy
The Don and Marilyn Anderson Professor of Oncology at University of Wisconsin – Madison discussed the state of cell and gene therapy development.
"Ten years ago, we were starting clinical trials. There was really no meaningful number of approved cell therapies in international jurisdictions. Fast forward a decade, now we have at least 6 key products that are approved, gene engineered stem cells have been approved. TILs have been approved, and the regulators are telling us that they anticipate that the number of approvals is going to grow every year. So now we have approved therapies and it’s not theoretical, and that's expanding. And there's this whole pipeline behind it.”
Jacques Galipeau, MD, Don and Marilyn Anderson Professor of Oncology at University of Wisconsin – Madison, and president, International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), chaired the presidential plenary of this year’s meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, from May 29 - June 1. The plenary brought together leaders of sister scholarly societies to discuss cell and gene therapy development including Anna Sureda, MD, PhD, president of European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation; Amander Clark, PhD, president, International Society for Stem Cell Research; and Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, FRCP(C), president, American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. The speakers discussed challenges with cell and gene therapies and their current state of development, within each country and internationally.
CGTLive® spoke with Galipeau to learn morethe state of gene and cell therapy investigations and development. He emphasized the progress in the field over the last 10 years, and how the number of novel approvals is expected to keep growing. Accordingly, he noted that the ISCT meeting is growing in attendance every year, and this year’s meeting, which was the 30th anniversary meeting, broke the record for attendance so far.
