Affordable Indian CAR-T therapy called NexCAR19 developed by ImmunoACT
Naveen Kumar Yethirajula
Junior Scientific writer || M.s Pharmacoinformatics || scientific writing ||Bioinformatics Enthusiast
Background on CAR-T Therapy:
CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell) therapy is a cutting-edge cancer treatment that involves genetically modifying a patient's own T cells to express artificial receptors that allow them to better recognize and kill cancer cells when reinfused.
It has shown great promise, especially for treating certain blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia when other treatments fail.
However, the CAR-T therapies approved so far in the U.S. since 2017 are extremely expensive at $370,000 to $530,000 per treatment, not including additional hospital costs.
Development of NexCAR19:
Like some existing CAR-T products, NexCAR19 targets the CD19 protein found on B-cell cancers.
But it uses a "humanized" CAR construct, where human proteins are added to the mouse antibody portion to reduce immunogenicity and extend durability.
Early studies showed this humanized CAR had comparable anti-tumor activity to mouse CARs but induced lower levels of cytokines that can cause dangerous side effects.
Clinical Trial Results:
In a Phase 1/2 trial of 33 patients with various lymphomas and leukemias, 19 (58%) achieved complete cancer remission at 1 month.
Another 4 patients had their tumors shrink by half, for an overall 70% response rate.
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Importantly, NexCAR19 demonstrated a better safety profile than some FDA-approved CAR-T therapies, with only 2 cases of severe cytokine release syndrome and no neurotoxicity cases.
Cost Savings Approach:
ImmunoACT manufactured all components (CAR vector, T cell engineering, production) themselves completely in India to leverage lower labor costs.
They avoided expensive automated production machinery used by Western companies.
This allowed them to price NexCAR19 at just $30,000-$40,000 per treatment.
Potential Impact:
Early results suggest NexCAR19 could provide a much more affordable CAR-T option, especially for low and middle-income countries. However, longer follow-up is still needed to confirm the therapy's durability.
Other Indian companies are also working on low-cost CAR-T therapies using different approaches.
In essence, this indigenous Indian CAR-T product could help make transformative cellular immunotherapies financially viable for many more cancer patients globally if it continues to demonstrate comparable real-world efficacy to existing higher-cost products.