Shedding Earlier Fears, Pharma Takes A Fresh Look At Cell, Gene Therapies

The early successes enjoyed by new autologous, cell-based cancer therapies, as well as new advances in gene therapy and regenerative medicine, have reignited interest at Big Pharma in these advanced treatments, said partnering executives at the recent Therapeutic Area Partnerships meeting in Boston.

Given a series of high-profile disappointments, most recently that of Dendreon Corp.’s prostate cancer drug Provenge (sipuleucel-T), Big Pharma has been understandably hesitant to commit significant resources to potentially promising cell and gene therapies.

Economic and technological hurdles and, perhaps most important, lack of proven efficacy have until now made these and other “advanced...

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