President Droupadi Murmu Launches Anti-Cancer CAR T- Cell Therapy
President Droupadi Murmu dedicated the newly developed CAR T-Cell therapy to treat cancer patients to the nation on Thursday during an event held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. NexCAR19 T-cell therapy is India”s first “Made in India” CAR T-cell therapy, which will significantly bring down the cost of the treatment, the officials said.
Droupadi Murmu after launching the indigenously developed gene therapy treatment, said that it will be successful in giving new lives to countless patients.
The CAR-T Cell therapy has been developed via collaboration between the IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital, in association with industry partner Immuno ACT. It “is a praiseworthy example of academia-industry partnership”.
Though cell therapy has been available in developed nations for some time but is extremely costly and beyond the reach of most patients globally, including in India.
President Murmu also added that with the knowledge base and skills of the faculty and students of IIT Bombay and other similar institutions, India “would benefit greatly from the technological revolution underway”.
“The development of this therapy in India over the past decade and its approval in October 2023 speaks volumes about the skills of Indian scientists and physicians,” said President Murmu.
CAR T-Cell therapy, a live drug, is a personalised treatment. Unlike chemotherapy, which is administered periodically to combat the disease. This innovative approach holds the promise of long-term cancer remission. And this will help to cure the cancer without necessitating a bone marrow transplant. In this method, the patient’s blood is used to isolate the T-cells which will be then genetically modified in the lab to create cancer-fighting cells known as CAR-T cells. These cells express chimeric antigen receptors specific to cancer cells which is infused into the patient. The main purpose of the modified cells is to locate and destroy the cancer cells present in the body.
