Cell Therapies Pty Ltd interim CEO and Chief Scientific Officer A/Prof Dominic Wall has spoken to Federal Parliamentarians about Australia’s “entirely new industry” – onshore CAR-T therapy manufacture.
A/Prof Wall addressed the Parliamentary Friends of Medicines group at Parliament House, Canberra, and was joined by haematologist Dr Michael Dickinson, who is Disease Group Lead for Aggressive Lymphoma at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
A/Prof Wall and Dr Dickinson – who is a national leader in the clinical use of CAR T-cell therapy – discussed CAR-T therapy principles and outcomes, and provided an overview of the CAR-T manufacturing process, in their presentation titled “What is CAR-T therapy?”.
“We are building an entirely new industry in Australia,” said A/Prof Wall in his address to Parliamentarians on 24 February 2021.
“Gene modified cells for human therapy will dominate medicine in the future, and ultimately this means Australia has a capability to not only be a manufacturer, but it can also develop and support the development of these products. Australia is exceptionally forward and prepared for this.”
In February 2021, Cell Therapies Pty Ltd announced it has received TGA approval to manufacture Novartis’ CAR-T therapy, Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel) in Melbourne, Australia, becoming the first approved Australian CAR-T commercial manufacturing site for this treatment, and one of six commercial-approved manufacturing sites worldwide.
