What’s Next for Commercial Cell Therapy Manufacturing?

Panellists from Invetech, bluebird bio, Juno Therapeutics and Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions (HCATS) discuss their vision for the coming era of industrialised cell therapy production at Phacilitate Leaders World 2019, Miami.

Automation is at the heart of achieving efficiency and cost-effectiveness in cell therapy manufacturing; however, many companies face barriers when it comes to introducing automation.

Invetech hosted a panel discussion at Phacilitate Leaders World in Miami, with David Hodl opening the floor by highlighting that many cell therapy companies are still challenged with the ‘how’ and ‘when’, and not engaging automation from the very beginning because of funding limitations and process complexity.

“A common theme we hear is ‘We need to first get our therapy approved, and then we’ll consider automation later’. With the approval of Yescarta and Kymriah in 2018, that ‘later’ has suddenly become ‘now’.”

In addition to David, the panel comprised of Steve Goodman (bluebird bio), Brian Hampson (Hitachi Chemical Advanced Therapeutics Solutions) and Randy Schweickart (Juno Therapeutics) who discussed their vision for the coming era of industrialised cell therapy production. You can watch the full discussion below. To dig further into the automation conundrum, you can attend the Automation Special Interest Group meeting this May in Italy.