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Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult Leads the World One Year on

on Wednesday, 17 July 2019.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGTC) in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, has celebrated its first birthday since opening, after a £50m grant from the UK Government. CGTC is a core plank of the country's life sciences strategy to be world leaders.

The hub is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and is progressing in leaps and bounds, already attracting businesses to come together in this new cluster to build an exciting hub for the manufacture of cell and gene therapy treatments at scale. There are currently four British companies and one from the US at the centre.

Gene therapy, cell therapy and gene editing are techniques designed to cure disease by changing people's genetic make-up. Gene and cell therapies are more established than gene editing - which is the new ways of permanently changing someone's DNA.

The US's and EU's medicines regulators have increased their staff numbers and training in anticipation of a growing number of applications for new therapies in this field.

Of the 241 gene therapy developers in Europe, the UK leads the way with 70.

Since manufacture is so complex, with highly personalised medicines, the large specialist manufacturing plant at Stevenage enables this to happen better than anywhere. To be affordable, there needs to be the ability to scale-up.

Keith Thompson, Chief Executive at the CGTC, has the vision of the companies on site becoming so big that they move next door and others come in and then they also grow - creating an even bigger centre of expertise.

Aside from a surge in M&A activity, some exciting successes have been found in the cell and gene therapy space. Last year, the European Medicines Agency gave its approval for Luxturna, which cures a rare genetic eye disorder. In addition, Yescarta and Kymriah, CAR-T cell medicines for curing blood cancer, have been given the go ahead.

Comment

These are exciting times for new treatments that will revolutionise the treatment of patients. To be effective, they need to be scalable and there needs to be clusters. It is fantastic to see the UK - and Hertfordshire in particular - leading the way.


Do you have any thoughts on this story or are you involved with the growth of cell and gene therapies? We would love to hear from you. Please share your thoughts with Paul Gershlick in our Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences team on 01923 919 320, or complete the form below.

 

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