As a cell and gene therapy developer, your cell collection protocol requirements and specifications will impact your apheresis center network selection strategy and your ability to efficiently scale your processes. Any time your protocols or processes differ from those in place at a center, there are likely implications for training, forms and standard operating procedures (SOPs), which can delay your first collection.
Allogeneic cell therapies are inherently complex. But they also hold the potential to scale to treat large segments of the population. Martin Maiers, MS, is the Vice President of Innovation at the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match®. He and his team develop software and analytical methods used to predict factors that can impact…
Just like for all businesses, March 2020 began what would become months of uncharted territory for our Be The Match BioTherapies® team. Overnight, travel to visit with cell therapy partners and potential clients was grounded. Conferences where connections are made…canceled. Even team meetings that were once in person moved online. But through these challenges, resiliency…
Sourcing your starting material from high-quality, healthy donors matters when you are manufacturing an allogeneic cell therapy. Any misstep can mean delays in your allogeneic therapy’s development. That makes your choice of a cell sourcing vendor critically important. Our team has sourced and collected cells for time critical cell therapies from more than 100,000 volunteer…
Travel disruptions caused by COVID-19 have meant little more than delayed holidays or missed work meetings for most of us. They’re inconveniences, but hardly life-threatening challenges. But for patients who depend on cell therapies to provide potentially curative treatments, the pandemic’s canceled flights and closed borders have posed a real threat to their wellbeing. In…
Even before COVID-19 reached pandemic levels, teams at the National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match® had their eye on an important part of the cell therapy supply chain—donor collections. Collections from allogeneic donors are critical to getting time-sensitive life-saving cell therapies to patients around the world. But donors often must fly to the apheresis…
Updated July 29, 2021 Allogeneic cell therapy developers face a challenge as the cell and gene therapy industry grows. How can they meet the future demand for allogeneic donors that allows them to scale their capabilities to reach larger numbers of patients while maintaining consistency? Some companies suggest the use of a dedicated donor pool…
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…
This piece was originally published in November 2019 on CellandGene.com We are living through one of the most exciting eras biopharmaceutical science has ever seen. Following the first U.S. and European regulatory approvals of gene therapies and CAR-T therapies in recent years, activity in this industry has skyrocketed. In the U.S., more than 800 clinical…