The Commercializing Uphill panel at Cancer Progress 2025 explored why advanced modalities—cell and gene therapies, radiopharmaceuticals, and others—remain so difficult to deliver at scale. What emerged was not a
question of scientific potential, but of systemic readiness.
This article carries that dialogue forward, exploring how commercialization must evolve if science is to reach patients.
Why do so many groundbreaking therapies still struggle to reach patients?
Cell and gene therapies, radiopharmaceuticals, and other advanced modalities have redefined what is possible in oncology. These treatments can deliver outcomes once thought unimaginable—deep remissions, durable responses, even cures. Yet, even with nearly a decade of CAR-T experience and an even longer history for radiopharmaceuticals, commercialization remains an uphill climb.
The barriers are no longer scientific—they are systemic: manufacturing that can’t keep pace, clinics unprepared for complex workflows, investors shifting away from long horizons, and patients left waiting—sometimes dying—when life-saving treatments were just within reach.
The annual Cancer Progress meeting convenes experts from across the globe to tackle these pervasive issues head-on. In 2025, the Commercializing Uphill panel, moderated by Martin Strebl-Bantillo of Lumanity’s Strategy Consulting team, brought together leaders who see the challenge from every angle—bench to bedside, boardroom to clinic. Their insights converged on a single reality: commercialization models must evolve as quickly as the science, or progress for patients will stall. The panel made clear that the burden no longer rests on science itself, but on the business models and systems expected to deliver it
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