First CAR-T cell therapy in India

Context

Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) recently conducted the first CAR-T cell therapy (a type of gene therapy) at the Bone Marrow Transplant unit at ACTREC in Mumbai. The CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT Bombay.

What is CAR-T therapy?

• The Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment.
• Clinical trials conducted globally have shown promising results in end stage patients, especially in patients suffering from Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
• Though this technology has a remarkable therapeutic potential for cancer patients, at present this technology is not available in India.
• Each patient's CAR-T cell therapy costs 3-4 crore (INR). The challenge therefore is to develop this technology in cost-effective manner.
• The development of CAR-T cell technology for diseases including acute lymphocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma, glioblastoma, hepatocellular carcinoma and type-2 diabetes is supported through DBT.

 “First in India” gene therapy

• The design, development, and extensive pre-clinical testing was carried out by IIT-B as a collaborative project with Tata Memorial Center, Mumbai.
• National Biopharma Mission-BIRAC has approved 19.15 Cr crore to the team for conducting a first-in-human phase-1/2 clinical trial of the CAR-T cells.
• The clinical trials are being done by Tata Memorial Hospital, and the novel CAR-T cells that will act as drugs that were manufactured by IIT Bombay.

National Biopharma Mission

• The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) is an industry-academia collaborative mission for accelerating biopharmaceutical development in India, co funded by the World Bank.
• Launched in 2017, it is being implemented by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
• Under this Mission the Government has launched Innovate in India (i3) programme to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.