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Cut-price CAR-T cell therapies top India’s biotech agenda

Nature Biotechnology volume 37, pages 1388–1389 (2019)Cite this article

Indian startups plan affordable CAR-T therapies—first for domestic use, then for the global market.

Although two CAR-T cell products—Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) from Novartis to treat children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and Yescarta (axicabtageneciloleucel) from Gilead for adults with large B-cell lymphoma—are already available on the US market, an annual course of treatment comes at a very high price: $475,000 for Kymriah and $373,000 for Yescarta. The high prices have meant that many patients cannot afford treatment, particularly if required to pay out of pocket. This has meant many cancer sufferers have flocked to trials in Israel and China, where the treatments are available at much cheaper prices. “As CAR-T cells are an effective option for these cancers, we urgently need this immunotherapy to be available in India at an affordable cost to save lives,” says Satya Prakash Yadav, director of the Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Medanta hospital near Delhi. Though exact figures are not available, the estimated market size for CAR-T cell therapies in India—based on extrapolation of data in various cancer hospitals—is 20,000–40,000 patients with leukemia and lymphoma per year.

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  1. Bangalore, India

    Killugudi Jayaraman

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Jayaraman, K. Cut-price CAR-T cell therapies top India’s biotech agenda. Nat Biotechnol 37, 1388–1389 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-019-0346-1

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