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Cytecare Hospitals has expanded its cancer care service offering via collaboration with ImmunoACT, an IIT Bombay-incubated company, known to develop the country’s maiden CAR-T cell therapy for blood cancers. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy, is globally considered one of the most promising areas of personalized cancer treatment.
As the first hospital in Karnataka to offer CAR-T cell therapy, outside of a clinical trial setting, Cytecare Hospitals will provide treatment access to ImmunoACT’s pioneering CAR-T cell therapy, NexCAR19 (Actalycabtageneautoleucel). Patients aged 15 and above can avail of the therapy for refractory or relapsing B-cell lymphoma and B-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, said the onco care provider in a statement.
CAR-T cell therapies are widely available in the US and Europe. Over 30,000 patients with certain blood or bone marrow cancers have been treated with CAR-T cell therapies. However, they can be expensive and often cost US$ 400,000+ just for the primary therapy. In India, the cost is substantially lesser at almost 1/10th of the overall cost in the United States.
Dr. Prasad Narayanan, director, medical oncology, Haemato Oncology & Bone Marrow Transplant, Cytecare Hospitals said, “We’ve been waiting for CAR-T cell therapy to become a reality in India for a long time now. There is a widely unmet clinical lead in B-cell malignancies, especially when one or more lines of treatment have failed, with the existing standard of care. We are confident that our clinical paradigms will be further enhanced with CAR-T cell therapies and we are eagerly looking forward to providing our patients with a fighting chance at better survival and improved quality of life, with the availability of NexCAR19™.”
NexCAR19 is India’s first CAR-T cell therapy that was given market authorization in October 2023 by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).ImmunoACT developed it through research efforts at IIT-Bombay, which were then accelerated through clinical trials in partnership with Tata Memorial Centre.
Suresh Ramu, Co-founder & CEO, Cytecare Hospitals, stated, “In many ways we find a synergy with ImmunoACT. Both our organizations are young, powered by innovation, and driven by the passion to provide affordable access to innovative treatments, particularly against cancers. With NexCAR19™ and, hopefully, more such CAR-T cell therapies, we will continue to strive towards treating cancers in the most effective way to achieve the best possible outcomes for our patients.”
Shirish Arya, Co-founder and Director of Business Development & Corporate Strategy, ImmunoACT, said , “Now that NexCAR19 is available commercially, our goal is to scale-up our operations effectively so that we can provide optimum support to healthcare institutions and empower them to do what they do best , save lives.”
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