2025: What Worked. What Didn’t. What Comes Next.

As the advanced therapies field moves from recovery into recalibration, Phacilitate convened its Advisory Board—leaders spanning industry, academia, clinical delivery, investment, and regulation—to take a candid look at 2025 and what it truly set in motion for 2026.

This plenary reflects the unfiltered perspectives of some of the most experienced minds in cell and gene therapy. Rather than focusing on hype, predictions, or isolated breakthroughs, the Advisory Board focused on 3 simple but difficult questions: What actually worked in 2025? What didn’t? And what are we now working on as we move into 2026?

What emerged was not a single narrative, but a shared recognition that the field has entered a new phase. Scientific feasibility is no longer the central question. Instead, access, delivery, manufacturability, regulation, and economic viability are now the defining constraints—and opportunities.

In this opening plenary, we will surface where the Advisory Board strongly aligns, where views diverge, and what those tensions reveal about the next phase of advanced therapies. The discussion will highlight practical lessons from 2025, emerging shifts already underway, and the realities shaping how therapies are being developed, delivered, and funded today.

This is not a forecast. It is a grounded assessment of where the field stands—and what it will take to move forward.