CAR-T Therapy – Just As Much a Process as a Product!

Authored by Cello Health, now part of Lumanity

Great talk by Dr. Dalip Sethi (Senior Scientist – Terumo BCT) @ the opening of the CAR-TCR Europe 2020 conference highlighting the many challenges associated with bringing CAR-T’s from bench to bedside, both from a process and standardisation perspective.

CAR-T therapies offer the potential to revolutionise cancer treatment; however, there are many challenges associated with effectively incorporating this treatment into the healthcare system from a process perspective – some of which are highlighted below:

METHODS: The methods used to produce CAR-T’s need to be controlled, reproducible and standardised
PROCESSES: Processes need to be flexible to effectively incorporate CAR-T’s into the healthcare system
STARTING MATERIALS: There is a great degree of variability in the starting materials used to generate CAR-T’s and this may effect efficacy and long-term outcomes
VARIABILITY: There is a great degree of variability in the apheresis protocols used to generate CAR-T’s and this may effect CAR-T titres

{ “Automation is a current and continual need for cell and gene therapy to minimise variability associated with CAR-T development”