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Challenges in the gene therapy commercial ecosystem

Nature Biotechnology volume 35, pages 813–815 (2017)Cite this article

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The emergence of biotech has resulted in a rich ecosystem of different types of actors contributing to the technological advance. Despite the enormous promise of biotech-based therapeutics, there is substantial uncertainty regarding when scientific discoveries will emerge, whether these discoveries will achieve clinical success, and how commercialized treatments will create value. Here we shed light on two contrasting episodes of technological advance, in monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and gene therapy, and the roles played by different types of institutional actors from the 1990s to today. Both technologies created significant opportunities within the biotech ecosystem. But mAbs have followed a smooth trajectory of progress, whereas gene therapy has been slower to emerge from a set of clinical setbacks at the turn of the twenty-first century1,2. Here, we contrast these two commercialization paths to shed light on the challenges in the gene therapy ecosystem.

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Figure 1: Global patenting trends in gene therapy and mAbs.
Figure 2: Global patenting trends in gene therapy and mAbs for the different types of actors in the biotechnology ecosystem.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Rahul Kapoor

  2. IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

    Thomas Klueter

  3. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    James M Wilson

Authors
  1. Rahul Kapoor
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  2. Thomas Klueter
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  3. James M Wilson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rahul Kapoor.

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Competing interests

J.M.W. is an advisor to REGENXBIO, Dimension Therapeutics and Solid Gene Therapy, and is a founder of, holds equity in, and has a sponsored research agreement with REGENXBIO and Dimension Therapeutics. In addition, he is a consultant to several biopharmaceutical companies and is an inventor on patents licensed to various biopharmaceutical companies.

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Kapoor, R., Klueter, T. & Wilson, J. Challenges in the gene therapy commercial ecosystem. Nat Biotechnol 35, 813–815 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.3931

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