Making CAR-T Therapy Affordable and Scalable in India: A Game Changer in Cancer Care

[Pratk]

Cancer treatment in India is witnessing a transformational moment—thanks to breakthroughs in cell and gene therapy making what’s once “cutting-edge and scarce” more accessible. One such example: the collaboration between NKure Therapeutics (Bengaluru) and CRISPR Therapeutics to develop CTX112, an off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy aimed at treating B-cell malignancies.

What’s New

Off-the-shelf CAR-T means healthier donor cells are engineered and stored, ready to use, rather than harvesting from the patient each time. This can help reduce waiting periods and simplify logistics.

The goal is to bring down costs significantly, potentially to one-third or less of what autologous therapies cost now.

India already has its own home-grown CAR-T: NexCAR19 (actalycabtagene autoleucel) developed via IIT Bombay & Tata Memorial, approved locally, showing promising results in trials.

Do you think cell/gene therapies like CAR-T will become part of standard cancer care in India in the next 5 years? What are the biggest roadblocks—cost, infrastructure, regulation, safety, or something else?

MBH/PS

[Devesh_chandola]

The advancements in cell and gene therapy, especially with off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies like CTX112 and India’s own NexCAR19, have the potential to revolutionize cancer care.

[dr_deepika]

Yea I think so it will become part of cancer treatment in future.

[Khelaharichandana]

yes, it should become a part of cancer treatment and thanks for sharing this post.

[Nikunj]

No, It would take a decade for general population to even get familiar with standard care. When it comes to this level of therapy, it would remain something much more advanced and inaccessible.

[sakshe]

These advancements can trully be life changing. The biggest hurdles can be cost of manufacturing, building specialised centres for gene therapy, the machine and equipment costs and rules to regulate these treatments.