New procedure should reduce costs for cancer therapy

Frankfurt Emily Whitehead has celebrated her birthday twice a year for the past ten years. Once for the anniversary of her birth and once because she is another year cancer free. The young American was saved by the so-called CAR-T therapy. The patient’s immune cells are reprogrammed in such a way that they successfully fight the aggressive blood cancer cells.

The procedure is a milestone in medical history. The CAR-T therapy from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis was approved for the first time in the USA in 2017. In the meantime, countless previously terminally ill blood cancer patients owe their lives to innovative cell therapies.

But there could be many more human lives. Therapies such as those for Emily Whitehead are still largely produced in a clean room, which is expensive. This is time-consuming and makes them expensive – the costs are more than a quarter of a million euros.

Will mRNA technology make Car T cell therapy cheaper?