The completion of the first draft of the human genome in 2001 was supposed to kick off an era of personalized medicine and curative gene therapies.1 Only in the past few years has that promise started to become reality: several RNA- and DNA-based therapies are now on market, and the first curative gene therapy, Luxturna, was approved in 2018.
These successes were largely due to a better clinical and scientific understanding of safety profiles as well as a refined manufacturing process that met the consistency and quality standards required for clinical scale. The bevy of new gene therapies in the development pipeline has the potential to transform care across several therapeutic areas. However, it also creates new challenges for key stakeholders—including pharma companies, regulatory agencies, providers and payers—in how to recalibrate the pharma development and reimbursement model for therapies that go beyond our traditional approach to treating disease.
> Read the full article on the McKinsey website
By Emily Capra, Jeff Smith, and Guang Yang
Source: McKinsey
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
