Chimeric: Media Thread, page-77

Not directly CHM related, but Jen was on a panel talking more broadly about the CAR-T industry, the current issues and what the future may hold. Keeping in mind CAR-T is at such an early stage, there is still a long long way to go to improve and proliferate its acceptance and use.

Jen's point on connecting patients earlier and giving them access (only approx. 15% of addressable market for currently FDA approved products are getting the treatment)... it rang a bell in terms of what OncaBay are known for.. that is they are ahead of the game in terms of connecting patients to treatments.

Jen also talked about what she thinks would be a 'game-changer' in making CAR-T more commercially available i.e. cheaper. And she talked about automating manufacturing of CAR-T cells, which some are already trialing. Imagine, they take your blood sample.. put it in a machine and in a few hours it spits of your CAR-T ready to inject. Compare that to the CAR-T process now, which is highly manual and expensive.

Interesting that Jen also took the camp of believing that autologous was going to always be better than allogenic type products (such as NK cells which are in early stages of clinical trials now). With durability / efficacy the biggest hurdle for allogenic treatments... does that mean of all the candidates for asset acquisition that have come across her not been able to convince her allogenic will eventually succeed? Maybe it was some role playing.. either way, if an NK cell is acquired by CHM.. it will need to have a novel way of overcoming durability which has solid data behind it.. or else I'd suggest CHM to stay clear of it.

Some very insightful points made by others and will give those who are interested in the CAR-T space, there is a nice discussion on allogeneic (off the shelf) vs autologous (from patient's own cells), and other topics that show the types of issues faced by current physicians and those trying to advance CAR-T into the future.

It also brings up a valid point in that there is still very little infrastructure supporting CAR-T, many clinics want to offer it.. but they can't afford the accreditation to administer it.. the cost and skillset is not yet wide enough, and that is a very common issue with a new field that just made it through the FDA. But as time goes by, all these infrastructural issues will go away with more physicians and clinics are able to offer CAR-T, and as CAR-T moves beyond oncology and starts treating more disease types. CAR-T is in essence a platform technology, and it doesn't only just need to target cancer.

Jen plays a role of critic in the panel discussion... and to me, that's a very insightful look into her personality and mindset ... she definitely sounds like someone who has been on the ground and really understands how difficult the path is to approval and the real barriers in the industry, rather than going into 'battle' with rainbow tinted glasses, Jen sounds like a veteran.