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…
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…
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…
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…
One patient, one product. The successful on-time delivery of cell and gene therapies isn’t just good business—it’s a matter of survival for patients. When there’s no room for mistakes, an advanced approach is needed to overcome supply chain disruptions that create barriers to successful on-time delivery. Severe weather, customs complexities and flight delays are three…
Coordinating the collection and delivery of cells for cell and gene therapy developers begins long before the first patient or donor is collected. Our Be The Match BioTherapies® Collection Network Liaison team works with cell and gene therapy clients to understand their needs. Then, they use established, standardized approaches to onboard, audit and train the…
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…
For cell and gene therapy companies developing allogeneic therapies, including allogeneic CAR-T or T-cell immunotherapies, getting high-quality starting material from healthy adult donors is critical to the success of their therapies. But, what is it like to be the allogeneic donors who get the call asking them to be volunteer donors? And why would they…
The field of cancer immunotherapies was buoyed last year by the FDA’s approval of the first autologous CAR-T drugs on the market, Novartis’ Kymriah and Gilead’s Yescarta. But, many drug makers are already looking in a new direction — off-the-shelf, or allogeneic, CAR-T therapies. In autologous therapies, like Kymriah and Yescarta, scientists isolate T cells from…