President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday launched India’s first indigenously-developed CAR T-cell therapy, a gene-based therapy, for cancer treatment, hailing it as a breakthrough that provides new hope for humankind in the battle against the diseases.
Speaking at the launch event at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Murmu said the indigenous development of the CAR T-cell therapy was an example of the Make in India initiative.
The gene-based therapy, which is developed by the IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Centre, is being rolled out in India at about one-tenth of its price outside the country, as per the senior official.
In CAR T-cell therapy, a patient’s T-cells, which is a type of immune system cell or stem cell, are modified in the laboratory and inserted back into the patient to attack and destroy cancer cells after editing the stem cell.
The NexCAR19 CAR T-cell therapy, the country’s first Made in India CAR T-cell therapy, is expected to bring down the cost of treatment significantly.
During her speech, Murmu said that this therapy is considered a phenomenal advance in medical sciences. The development of this therapy is also an example of the Make in India initiative and speaks volumes about Indian scientists and physicians, she added.
The launch of India’s first gene therapy is a significant breakthrough in the battle against cancer. As this line of treatment, named CAR T-cell therapy, is accessible and affordable, it provides a new hope for the whole of humankind, President Murmu further added.
The Tata Memorial Centre director Sudeep Gupta said the CAR T-cell therapy was enormously expensive and out of the reach of an overwhelming majority of people.
Asserting that, he said NexCar19 needs to be custom manufactured for every patient under the most stringent conditions, but it has been rolled out at approximately one-tenth of the price at which it is available outside India.
The treatment costs approximately Rs 4 crore abroad against Rs 30 lakh in India, said IIT Bombay director Prof Subhasis Chaudhuri.
He further said that the low-cost CAR T-cell therapy was a huge achievement for the country and cancer patients, and places India firmly on the global map of cell and gene therapy.
Comparing the achievement of Chandrayaan-3 with CAR T-cell therapy, Chaudhuri asserted that CAR-T cell therapy heralds India’s entry into the cell and genetic engineering group.
The Tata Memorial Centre director Gupta said the treatment will help some 20,000 Indians every year, and its rollout is a milestone in the field of cancer care and genetic engineering.
He added the CAR T-cell was not only a scientific achievement of the highest order but also had immense practical application. NexCAR19 will save many, many lives and wipe many, many tears, he emphasised.