Breaking The Bottleneck For Cell And Gene Therapy Studies: Strategies For Creating Clinical Enthusiasm And Selecting Sites

By Megan Liles, Executive Director, Operational Strategy and Feasibility, Precision for Medicine

With several gene and cell therapies currently in development and even more rapidly moving toward the development stage, a big bottleneck in this evolving field is identifying sites with the capability and capacity to conduct these resource-intensive studies. Research in this sector is concentrated, with over 1,000 gene and cell therapy developers active globally, according to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.[1] As of the end of Q3 2020, there were nearly 1,100 clinical trials ongoing worldwide, 97 of which are in Phase 3.1

Established sites, such as City of Hope in the US, Peter MacCallum in Australia, and The Christie in the U.K.  are often the go-to centers for gene and cell therapy studies but may have long wait lists. Gene and cell therapy developers need to create clinical interest to find champions at investigative sites and, differentiate their products and clinical trials to keep development moving forward.

In this article, we explore strategies for building clinical enthusiasm and selecting the right sites for gene and cell therapy trials.