SHARE NOW
Pascal Touchon, President and CEO of Atara Biotherapeutics, reflects on two decades of working within the Advanced Therapies industry as Phacilitate celebrates 20 years of operating in the field.
First of all, could you tell me a little bit about your career over the last 20 years?
I have spent these past 20 years, and even longer, dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with serious medical conditions through innovative science. Currently, I am President and Chief Executive Officer at Atara Biotherapeutics, where we are focused on transcending the current limitations of cell therapy by utilizing an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) T-cell platform to develop allogeneic cell therapies for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases, like multiple sclerosis.
Before Atara, I was the Global Head of Cell & Gene at Novartis. There I led the global launch of Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), the ‘first-ever’ chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy approved by regulatory authorities. Kymriah is a transformational one-time treatment that utilizes a patient’s own T-cells to fight cancer and has had an incredible impact on those suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma, providing many with another chance at life.
Leading teams that are the first to pioneer cutting edge cell therapies has quickly become my passion. At Atara, we have also already had our own ‘first’ when the company made history with the European approval of Ebvallo (tabelecleucel), the world’s first-ever allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy. Ebvallo was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Epstein-Barr virus positive post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (EBV+PTLD), which is a rare but deadly type of cancer.
What inspired you to first get into cell and gene therapy?
Stories like Emily Whitehead, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in May 2010 when she was only 5 years old. After relapsing twice, the leukemia became resistant to treatment and her doctors exhausted all treatment options. They recommended hospice care and expected her to live for only a few more weeks. Emily’s parents were not willing to give up. They heard about an experimental CAR-T cell therapy that was available as a Phase I trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and enrolled her in 2012.
On May 10, 2012, 23 days after Emily began the treatment, a bone marrow test indicated all her cancer was gone. Emily, who recently got her driver’s license and is applying to colleges, has remained cancer free, and when she turned 17 in May of this year, was declared ‘cured’. Meanwhile her therapy made at UPenn by Carl June and his team became KYMRIAH in the hands of Novartis. To me, this is one of the miracles of science and of the field Atara is leading.
How are you enjoying this Q&A? Let us know your thoughts, here >>
What changes have you observed from the industry over the last 20 years? What’s changed, what challenges have arisen (or changed)?
Over the past 20 years, the industry has shifted in monumental ways, and will continue to evolve with incredible scientific advances. I think some of the most exciting changes have been in the development of more personalized, targeted medicine.
In many diseases, especially cancer, we now have the technology to develop therapies that are very specifically targeted and have less toxicity than ever before. As Kymriah brought autologous cell therapy into the clinic, Ebvallo’s December 2022 approval represents another step forward. By using single donor-derived batches of cells to treat potentially hundreds of patients, allogeneic CAR T-cell approaches may help treatment reach patients faster than autologous CAR-T therapy, and we can now deliver on this promise of treating patients across the world within a few days.
What memories do you have of the first Phacilitate event you ever attended? What year was it?
I had the privilege to be invited in January 2018 to Advanced Therapies Week to participate in the opening chat with Anthony Davies and discuss Kymriah’s journey to approval as the first cell and gene therapy ever approved in the US.
What ‘unexpected moments’ do you remember from over the past 20 years of Phacilitate events? Do you have any anecdotes or memories that especially stand out from attending our events, that might have surprised or had a lasting impact for you?
I remember last year’s Advanced Therapies Week with pride and emotion when the approval of Ebvallo was mentioned by many speakers as one of the key events for the field in 2022.
What do you expect to see from the industry over the next 20 years?
As with monoclonal antibodies, which took roughly a decade to become broadly accepted and prescribed, I believe that over the next 5–10 years and beyond, cell therapies will become a common treatment option, expanding to solid tumors and diseases beyond oncology. The approval of cell therapies, like autologous CAR-T therapies, have already helped thousands of patients each year. But improvements in safety, efficacy and access need to continue to ultimately benefit patients across the spectrum of therapeutic areas.
Already, the volume and speed of next-generation autologous CAR enhancements is astonishing, with new bioengineering approaches under development and just beginning to hit the clinic. But in addition, the cell therapy ecosystem is maturing and evolving from autologous approaches to allogeneic living medicines, manufactured at scale in advance of patient need ready for delivery within days. We can anticipate that these off-the-shelf cell approaches will continue making their mark in the rapidly advancing biotechnology sector, pushing forward clinical-stage platforms with potential applications across a spectrum of therapeutic areas like cancer and autoimmune diseases.
If you could speak to yourself 20 years ago, what would you say? Would you have any advice or pearls of wisdom to share with yourself from 20 years ago?
My advice would be to trust your vision and continue to surround yourself with the very best people who share your goal for real and lasting innovation with patients at its core. Transformative medical innovation is a perennial story of resilience and hard work for the benefit of patients, and we are so privileged to work in this field.
What would you say to anyone considering attending Phacilitate’s 2024 Advanced Therapies Week?
For any executive or company seeking a platform to discuss the latest innovations in cell and gene therapies, Phacilitate’s 2024 Advanced Therapies Week is one of the best places to make lasting connections with other leaders and innovators. In fact, that is what has always drawn me to the event, and what keeps me coming back!
Do you have any additional comments or anything you’d like to share that perhaps hasn’t been covered by the questions above?
In the past year, I have participated in multiple cell and gene therapy events, and each time I have felt empowered talking to other industry leaders about life-altering innovations, like the cutting-edge technology and novel therapies that we are developing at Atara.
