Cell and Gene Therapies a $3.8BN Market Despite COVID-19 Crisis, Report Says
Cell therapies involve the modification of human cells which are used to replace or repair damaged tissues or cells. Two areas with growing development and commercialization include chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T therapies and stem cell therapies. According to a recent report from Kalorama Information, the global market for cell and gene therapy in 2020 is estimated to reach $3,866 million. (That analysis is coming after COVID-19 hit the United States). Most of the market is for the treatment of cancer. But there are other – dermatological, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and other conditions.
With the COVID-19 crisis, there is not as much focus on this area, but Kalorama believes a strong pipeline hints at continued revenue growth when hospitals, clinical trials and doctor’s offices reopen.
“The COVID-19 threat has only temporarily overshadowed what is one of the larger innovations in pharmaceutical therapy in recent years,” said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information, Part of Science and Medicine Group. “Earlier this year, you were seeing impressive study results, the possibility of new CAR-T products and even therapies not using donor cells. This isn’t something that just goes away.”
In fact, cell and gene therapy is at work in the COVID-19 crisis.
There are some efforts to adapt this promising technology to the treatment and prevention of the disease. There are a number of companies that are responding to the call to develop a therapeutic or vaccine for the novel coronavirus including:
- Vitro Biopharma offers its umbilical cord derived stem cells AlloRx stem cells and has a patent-pending and scalable manufacturing platform to provide stem cell therapies to COVID-19 patients.
- Celularity and Sorrento Therapeutics entered into collaboration for CYNK-001, an allogeneic, off the shelf, placental-derived NK cell therapy.
- It’s even possible CAR-T, currently used for types of cancer with limited therapeutics, could be used for COVID-19. CAR-T involves using modified versions of the patient’s own cells for treatment. The engineering of specific virus-targeting receptors onto a patient’s own immune cells is now being explored by scientists from Duke-National University of Singapore (Duke-NUS).
Despite these efforts, the majority of the market currently is and is expected to represent treatments for cancer. Oncology drugs Kymriah, Provenge, and Yescarta are primarily responsible for generating sales in the segment.
Kalorama’s report can be found at: https://kaloramainformation.com/product/cell-therapy-and-gene-therapy-markets
About Kalorama Information
For more than 30 years, Kalorama Information has been a leading publisher of market research in healthcare areas, including in vitro diagnostics (IVD), biotechnology, healthcare, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.
