President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday launched ‘NexCAR19’, India’s first CAR T-cell therapy for cancer at IIT Bombay.She said the launch of India’s first gene therapy was a major breakthrough in the battle against cancer.
The CAR T-cell therapy involves modifying patient’s T cells (a type of immune system cell) in the laboratory. These modified cells are then transferred back into the body of the patient after which they attack cancer cells — especially in blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphomas.
After a decade of laboratory testing, pre-clinical and clinical trials, researchers have developed ‘NexCAR19’. Under the therapy, patient’s blood is drawn and taken to the lab, where T-cells are genetically modified. In 10 days, these cells will be reinfused into the patient.
“The CAR T-cell therapy is considered one of the most phenomenal advances in medical science. It has been available in the developed nations for some time, but it is extremely costly and beyond reach for most patients around the world” said Murmu.
“What is new about the therapy being launched today is that it costs 90 per cent less than what is available elsewhere. I am told that this is the world’s most affordable CAR T-cell therapy,” said the President.
The therapy has been developed by IIT-Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital in association with industry partner ImmunoACT, a startup by Alka Dwivedi, Atharva Karulkar and Prof Rahul Purwar of IIT-Bombay. President Murmu said cancer in India had claimed 14.6 lakh lives in 2022 and the number was likely to rise to 15.7 lakh by 2025.
