“Cell and gene therapy is in a winter period. We just need to hold our breath and adapt ourselves to the weather,” observed Miguel Forte, President of ISCT & CEO of Kiji Therapeutics.

Miguel Forte chaired the Advanced Therapies UK opening keynote panel in London this week, which examined the current challenges facing cell and gene therapies whilst sharing optimistic perspectives on how the sector can navigate from its current “winter” into a promising “spring” of renewed growth and patient access.

Market Cycles and Investment Reality

David emphasised there’s still significant investment activity despite current headwinds. “There’s still companies investing in cell and gene. Big pharma companies are investing in obesity skunk work projects to do better than GLP1s.”

Matthieu Coutet, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, reinforced this investment perspective: “As investors, we have to invest when the wave is not that high and be resilient.” He highlighted the critical importance of working closely with academics to identify emerging opportunities in the field.

Manufacturing Efficiency and Cost Reduction

The panel identified manufacturing improvements and cost reduction as essential to advancing cell and gene therapies.

Lara Campana, SVP and Head of Research and Translational Science at Resolution Therapeutics, pointed out that it still takes “4-5 weeks to take therapy to patient currently,” indicating significant room for improvement.

“Price negotiation is part of it,” Campana explained, “but the other part is how much it costs us to make. We need to work on COGS so we have a better starting point for price negotiation.”

Jordan Schecter, Vice President and Multiple Myeloma DAS Leader at Johnson & Johnson, emphasized access challenges: “You have great therapies, but if they’re not accessible to patients, we’re not meeting our goal. In many countries, these therapies are not reimbursed or available.”

Schecter suggested that “in vivo technologies are a way to democratise, bringing cost of goods down, reducing waiting time, with product off the shelf—no vein to vein time.”

Technology Approaches and Academic Innovation

Dame Molly Stevens, John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at Oxford University, brought academic perspective to the discussion, highlighting innovations in nanoparticle-based delivery systems.

“When we enter nanoparticle-based delivery, how do we get more robust characterisation? We recently invented an instrument to do automated measurements of single nanoparticles for better understanding of how formulations vary at the particle level,” Stevens explained, while acknowledging challenges in translating academic innovations to clinical applications.

Eric David offered balanced perspective on competing technological approaches: “I don’t think one’s easier; both autologous and in vivo approaches have remarkable challenges. Autologous cell-modified therapies have proven themselves and have a very narrow paradigm.”

David expressed optimism about the sector’s innovative capacity: “This is a more innovative creative space than it’s ever been. Cell therapy has allogeneic versus autologous challenges—how to construct whole organs—things coming that will transform.”

Path to Spring Revival

Looking toward the future, panel members shared their “wishes for spring”—their hopes for the sector’s resurgence. Eric David anticipated “positive data across multiple programmes,” while Jordan Schecter expressed encouragement about “CAR-T therapy just approved which will help harmonise the field, wave of the future.”

Paolo Morgese, VP of Public Affairs for Europe at Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, summarized the ultimate goal: reaching “as many patients as possible” with these potentially transformative therapies.

Miguel Forte concluded by emphasizing the industry’s dual responsibilities: “We have a duty to patients to optimise the delivery of those therapies while we dream about the future.”