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While the promise is great, let's be real. All of these personalised therapies get loads of funding because they almost inherently will be very expensive since

While the promise is great, let's be real. All of these personalised therapies get loads of funding because they almost inherently will be very expensive since they cannot scale, meaning drug manufactures supplying these can make a killing even compared to already expensive but more commonly used therapies. I guess this is more a comment on car-t usage in oncology and if this leads to seriously improved health outxomes, then of course, all the power to them. Edit: i was mistaken, see below.

dyauspitr 2y ago
That’s the whole point here, it’s not personalized. It comes from a donor so it’s somewhat standardized.
danielfoster 2y ago
I understand this therapy is inherently more complex, but there are plenty of medical treatments that have helped millions of people without scaling like a drug: IVF, cognitive behavior therapy, casts for broken bones, etc. Maybe I’m too optimistic but I’m sure the overall cost can be reduced dramatically over time even with individualization.
- Loughla 2y ago
  I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying. These therapies are very individualized and will probably be very expensive. How is CBT and casting a broken bone in any way like that? Those two things aren't reliant on medicine at all. Please explain, because I feel kind of stupid right now.
GeekyBear 2y ago
> very expensive since they cannot scale This approach does scale, but has new safety risks. They aren't genetically modifying each patient's own cells, one patient at a time, but are trying to create a line of generic T-cells that will attack only the B-cells of any patient. The risk is that genetically modified T-cells that are not derived from your own cells might attack all the cells of your body, and not just your misbehaving B-cells. They have made additional modifications to the CAR-T T-cells that they believe will prevent them from going rogue, but more safely testing is needed. From what I've read, this same more generic approach is being attempted with CAR-T cancer treatment as well.

dyauspitr 2y ago

That’s the whole point here, it’s not personalized. It comes from a donor so it’s somewhat standardized.

danielfoster 2y ago

I understand this therapy is inherently more complex, but there are plenty of medical treatments that have helped millions of people without scaling like a drug: IVF, cognitive behavior therapy, casts for broken bones, etc. Maybe I’m too optimistic but I’m sure the overall cost can be reduced dramatically over time even with individualization.

Loughla 2y ago
I'm not sure that I understand what you're saying. These therapies are very individualized and will probably be very expensive. How is CBT and casting a broken bone in any way like that? Those two things aren't reliant on medicine at all. Please explain, because I feel kind of stupid right now.

GeekyBear 2y ago

> very expensive since they cannot scale This approach does scale, but has new safety risks. They aren't genetically modifying each patient's own cells, one patient at a time, but are trying to create a line of generic T-cells that will attack only the B-cells of any patient. The risk is that genetically modified T-cells that are not derived from your own cells might attack all the cells of your body, and not just your misbehaving B-cells. They have made additional modifications to the CAR-T T-cells that they believe will prevent them from going rogue, but more safely testing is needed. From what I've read, this same more generic approach is being attempted with CAR-T cancer treatment as well.