STAT+: In the U.S., scientists see barriers to the development of CAR-T cell therapies. In Spain, a hospital brews its own
A special European policy allows researchers at hospitals to make their own advanced cell or gene therapies under particular circumstances and earn some form of regulatory approval.
BARCELONA, Spain — Some of the patients waiting in the oncology ward of a hospital here, with its green-tiled floor and white walls, had arrived for a newfangled remedy for blood cancers, what’s known as a CAR-T therapy.
The patients were not here for one of the brand-name medicines — a Kymriah or Yescarta — that have shown the power of these cell-based approaches and helped reap their makers hundreds of millions of dollars. Rather, they would be receiving a CAR-T brewed up right here at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
Under a special European policy, the CAR-T developed by the hospital’s experts had won regulatory approval in Spain and was reimbursed by the national health system like other authorized medications. The therapy provided another option for patients, all at a price of 89,000 euros ($97,000), roughly a third of the list prices of the CAR-T products from biopharma companies.
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