PTX Media related, page-705

I think the announcement about TFS launching the huge viral-vector facility in Massachusetts threw me

Yes, that brought to six the number of viral vector manufacturing facilities that TFS now has worldwide, including one they bought in Belgium last year for A$1bn+. TFS is sensibly catering to nearer-term, certain demand for viral vectors but also anticipating and preparing for what demand will be for in the future.

Viral vectors aren’t going anywhere soon. They’re used in the manufacture of currently approved CAR-T therapies such as Kymriah, as well as hundreds of CAR-T therapies in development. They’re used in approved vaccines such as the Astra Zeneca and Sputnik Covid vaccines and the Ebola vaccine. They’re also used in approved gene therapy products such as Novartis’ Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy, Spark Therapeutics’ Luxturna for an inherited blinding disease and Amgen’s Imlygic for advanced melanoma, as well as multiple gene therapies in development.

But as an increasing number of Car-T and gene therapies are approved, their prohibitive cost (e.g. A$500,000+ for Kymriah and A$2m+ for Zolgensma) will rule out the likelihood of payer reimbursement and widespread adoption. Therefore, cheaper and more efficient production solutions must be found.

Cheaper non-viral vector and automated cell manufacturing systems are likely to be part of the solution as are modular platforms such as OmniCAR which have the advantage of a single production run.