Representation of cell therapy production disruption due to COVID-19 pandemic

How COVID-19 is changing the production of cell therapies

This piece written by Joy Aho, PhD, Senior Product Manager, Be The Match BioTherapies®, was originally published on CellandGene.com in April 2020. We’re living through unprecedented times, both as individuals and as a nascent cell therapy field. The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative implications for manufacturing and shipping across nearly all industries, including very pronounced…

COVID-19

Navigating a time-sensitive cell therapy supply chain during the coronavirus outbreak (Updated)

Updated March 27, 2020 (original story follows) Editor’s note: It’s been just over one month since we first shared how established relationships have helped our organization navigate the impacts of the coronavirus on the cell therapy supply chain. Since then, much has changed. Just a few days after we posted the story, reports from Italy…

HLA matching could bring more allogeneic cell therapies to market, faster

The emergence of novel cell therapy technologies has led to questions about the necessity of human leukocyte antigen matching (HLA matching) in the development of potential “universal” allogeneic cell therapies. After all, if you can eliminate alloreactive responses, what role would HLA matching play? Martin Maiers, MS, is the Vice President of Biomedical Informatics for…

Abby McDonald, PhD, is the manager of Solutions Development at Be The Match BioTherapies

Driving CAR-T therapy safety and sustainability for the road ahead

Autologous and allogeneic CAR-T therapies continue to hold significant promise for patients. But with that potential comes challenges, as more CAR-T therapies enter clinical trials and commercialization. Some are universal to both autologous CAR-T and allogeneic CAR-T, but each has its unique obstacles, too. Abby McDonald, PhD, supervises the Solutions Development team for Be The…

Reimbursement uncertainties hinder patient access to CAR-T therapies

The approval of CAR-T therapies Kymriah® and Yescarta® in late 2017 represented an enormous milestone for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, and other blood cancers. However, the ongoing uncertainty over reimbursement has made it difficult for patients to access the CAR-T treatments. Despite the months passed since the therapies were FDA approved, only some patients that…