By Darren Incorvaia – Fierce Biotech –
CAR-T cell therapy has flourished since its first use in 2010, leading to seven approved medicines for various blood cancers. But adapting the powerful technique, which involves engineering a patient’s own T cells to fight cancer, to solid tumors has proven a vexing challenge.
Last week, a biotech finally broke through, securing approval to market a CAR-T therapy designed to attack gastric tumors. But the breakthrough didn’t come from a U.S. industry hub like Boston or San Francisco, nor did the science underlying it originate at leading American research institutions like the University of Pennsylvania or the National Cancer Institute, where scientists pioneered CAR-T decades ago.
