Timing Is an Essential Element of Cell & Gene Therapy Product Development

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“Drug development is an interesting process because it takes five to 10 years to get a drug to market and invariably, somewhere along that line, the technology’s a little outdated before it even is approved, and there’s new things out there that are better,” says Jeffrey Castelli, chief portfolio officer and head of gene therapy at Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FOLD). “You look at some of the gene therapies that are now just ready coming to market and you think, wow, that’s a pretty outdated gene therapy approach—but you really get locked in as you’re moving your product toward development.” Castelli was among the executives who spoke as part of a panel at Xconomy’s online Xcelerating Life Sciences Philadelphia forum last week. “But you do get locked into your approach along the way, and there’s more and more switching costs as you move along that pathway.” To guide that process Tom Wilton, chief business officer at Philadelphia-based cell therapy company Carisma Therapeutics, says it’s essential to collect and analyze data early on to guide the path of drug development. … What that should give us then is a set of criteria and priorities around what we need to bring forward in a next-generator program.” To date the company’s consideration of new technologies has been perhaps a bit more opportunistic—“everything from gene editing the macrophages to novel binders to different combination strategies”—but once Carisma has the initial clinical data in hand, that will narrow its focus, Wilton said. “There is a capacity shortage right now in cell and gene therapy manufacturing,” said Audrey Greenberg, co-founder and executive managing director of Discovery Labs, an MLP Ventures-backed biotech coworking and incubator space in King of Prussia, PA. “There’s estimates that it’s five times [current cumulative bioreactor volumetric capacity] now and will be 50 times in five years given the FDA pipeline and the dollars flowing into these companies.” Discovery Labs is building out a $1.1 billion gene and cell treatment manufacturing operation plus developing a contract development manufacturing organization to provide services to companies in the sector.

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