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Transcript
Katherine Banwell:
Let’s talk about how CAR T-cell therapy has changed. Are there any recent advances that you’d like to share with the audience?
Dr. Krina Patel:
Yeah, I think the evolution of CAR T therapy has just been so fast, and again, in myeloma, we’re actually seeing some of the new targets as well as new ways of manufacturing and trying to make these cells a lot faster.
You know, compared to other treatments in myeloma, this is the one treatment where we actually have to make it personalized for each patient, and again, our goal is always to improve. So, our first CAR T was approved by the FDA in 2021, and I will say, since then, a lot has happened. The time to actually get the CAR Ts back has been much better. So, four to six weeks. Before, it would take a few months.
But I think the biggest new therapies that are coming out really come down to, there are no targets with GPRC5D instead of something called BCMA, which is what all of our CAR Ts right now go after. There are some that are dual-targeted now, so, CD19, a different target on the myeloma cell with BCMA, and then again, combinations with other therapies.
And then the one big thing that came out of ASH, which, I still feel like a science fiction to me, is something called in vivo CAR T. So, there are only four patients that they’ve talked about so far, but everyone’s excited about the future of this.
But giving the vector that actually makes the CARs directly to the patient so that we don’t have to actually manufacture any cells, that the CAR Ts are made in the patient and they don’t require the lymphodepletion chemo or anything. So, again, we have time before that comes out, but just really cool stuff about how CAR Ts are just going to get better and better.