Waseem Qasim Pioneers Allogeneic CAR T Cell Therapy
When we think of pioneers in the CAR T cell therapy space, one person who comes to mind is Waseem Qasim, Professor of Cell and Gene Therapy at the Institute of Child Health at University College London, and a Consultant Immunologist and Pediatrician at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).
Institute of Child Health
As readers may recall back in 2015, he gave the first allogeneic CAR T cell therapy under compassionate use to an infant with ALL, and in the process undoubtedly saved her life.
The subsequent case report published in Blood was the talk of 2015 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in Orlando.
The poster focused on the first child that Prof Qasim treated and attracted a phenomenal amount of attention:
Prof Qasim UCART19 #ASH15 Poster
Where are we now with allogeneic CAR T cell therapy?
It’s been 18 months since we spoke to Prof Qasim, so while in London over the summer BSB caught up with him in his office at the Institute of Child Health.
This interview is the first in our latest 3-part mini-series on allogeneic CAR T cell therapy, which runs throughout this week. Here’s a teaser clip:
Kite’s first autologous product, Axi-Cel (in aggressive lymphomas), heads for regulatory approval in the US (PDUFA date November 29th), offering Gilead a hematology launch product with a high unmet need and, presumably, a relatively high price tag to match. Inevitably, some critical attention will subsequently be focused on the pipeline and whether they will move towards allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy (reduces cost of goods and increases profit margin) as well as how the TCR platform in solid tumours will fare.
It’s certainly a timely point to consider allogeneic CAR T cell therapies again given that things are rapidly heating up in the cell therapy niche following the Gilead announcement yesterday that they are acquiring Kite Pharma for $11.9 Billion.
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