“The trend for 2018 is very much focusing on how to eliminate some of the profitability issues with first-generation CAR Ts because companies realize that manufacturing individualized treatments for each patient is not an ideal business model,” Dr. Xuan said in an interview.
More market competition is also in the forecast, particularly from smaller companies, Dr. Xuan said.
“What we are likely to see in the future is larger companies acquiring smaller ones once their CAR T technology has matured to a certain point,” she said. “We have seen it with the Gilead-Kite acquisition, as well as Celgene’s acquisition of Juno Therapeutics, and this trend will continue as long as smaller companies are able to develop proprietary next-generation CAR T technologies.”
Cost and accessibility remain key concerns with the therapies, especially for the Medicare population. Cost estimates have put the cost of CAR T-cell therapies as high as $1.5 million per patient.