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  • Perspective
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Industrializing engineered autologous T cells as medicines for solid tumours

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 20, pages 476–488 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Cell therapy is one of the fastest growing areas in the pharmaceutical industry, with considerable therapeutic potential. However, substantial challenges regarding the utility of these therapies will need to be addressed before they can become mainstream medicines with applicability similar to that of small molecules or monoclonal antibodies. Engineered T cells have achieved success in the treatment of blood cancers, with four chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies now approved for the treatment of B cell malignancies based on their unprecedented efficacy in clinical trials. However, similar results have not yet been achieved in the treatment of the much larger patient population with solid tumours. For cell therapies to become mainstream medicines, they may need to offer transformational clinical effects for patients and be applicable in disease settings that remain unaddressed by simpler approaches. This Perspective provides an industry perspective on the progress achieved by engineered T cell therapies to date and the opportunities and current barriers for accessing broader patient populations, and discusses the solutions and new development strategies required to fully industrialize the therapeutic potential of engineered T cells as medicines.

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Fig. 1: The Cell Therapy Utility Framework: characterizing the optimal IO therapy based on the ability of tumours to hide and protect from the immune system.
Fig. 2: Parent–child IND development strategy, an efficient model to investigate multiple related T cell-based products or manufacturing process changes.
Fig. 3: Patient journey and focused areas of innovation to support further industrialization.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Editorial support was provided by F. Woodward and G. Corr of Fishawack Indicia Ltd, UK, and was funded by GSK.

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  1. Cedrik M. Britten

    Present address: Immatics Biotechnologies, Munich, Germany

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  1. Oncology R&D, GlaxoSmithKline, Stevenage, UK

    Cedrik M. Britten

  2. Oncology R&D, GlaxoSmithKline, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Aiman Shalabi & Axel Hoos

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A.S. is an employee of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and owns stocks/shares. C.M.B. was an employee of GSK and owns stocks/shares; he recently moved to Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH. A.H. is an employee of GSK and holds stocks/shares, and is a non-executive director and shareholder of Imugene and TCR2 Therapeutics.

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Alliance for Regenerative Medicine: https://alliancerm.org/

American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy: https://www.astct.org/home

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European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation: https://www.ebmt.org/

Friends of Cancer Research: https://friendsofcancerresearch.org/

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Britten, C.M., Shalabi, A. & Hoos, A. Industrializing engineered autologous T cells as medicines for solid tumours. Nat Rev Drug Discov 20, 476–488 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41573-021-00175-8

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