Patient-centric progress: overcoming bottlenecks in cell therapy development
At Advanced Therapies Europe 2023 (5–7 September 2023, Estoril, Portugal), we spoke with George Eastwood (right), Board Chair and Interim Executive Director at the Emily Whitehead Foundation (PA, USA), about the bottlenecks currently limiting the advancement of cell therapies and how they can be overcome through collaboration. George also gives his insight into how the industry can better integrate the patient voice into the development process to improve patient outcomes.
Read the full interview below.
Tell us about the sessions you took part in at ATE
I chaired the session titled, “Accelerating Cell & Gene Therapeutic Success Through Healthcare, Government and Patient Involvement,” which focused on connecting and engaging patient, healthcare, industry and academia to accelerate the development of cell therapies.
I also took part in a patient operations session hosted by Lynn Fischer of Title21 (AZ, USA), which focused on prioritizing patient safety through digital transformation and connecting data across the entire patient journey. We had great conversations there as part of a panel with Jacqueline Barry from Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (London, UK), Lynette Okello from Achilles Therapeutics (London, England) and Beth Gardner from Beam Therapeutics (MA, USA).
What are some of the key takeaways from the session you chaired?
In general, there are a lot of takeaways around the bottlenecks in cell and gene therapy. We like to think of it in three ways. Firstly, there’s a bottleneck around research and development. Can we make these therapies less toxic and more targeted? Secondly, there’s a bottleneck in the manufacturing side. And finally, there’s a bottleneck in the delivery on the healthcare side.
We touched upon all of those in some capacity. Finding solutions is not easy, but our key takeaway is identifying the problem and defining the niche that we need to fill as a nonprofit, along with the role that industry, academia, healthcare and other collaborators can play.
Do you have solutions in mind for addressing these bottlenecks?
The Emily Whitehead Foundation was established to fund research to develop less toxic treatments. Over the past 11 years since Emily Whitehead’s successful treatment, we’ve seen increased funding for pediatric cancer. But delivering these transformative therapies, supporting patients and ensuring access is crucial.
We have partnered with another nonprofit called truetrials.org, focused on creating a clinical trial map of FDA-approved therapies within the cell, gene and regenerative medicine space, with support from leaders like Peter Marks of the US FDA. We’re leveraging our connections with CAR-T companies and the journey that we’ve been on as a foundation to improve clinical trial access and treatment options and support patients in the space.
We’ve also provided seed funding to other patient support organizations. Recently we provided a $10,000 donation for the creation of the Mighty Oaks Foundation to help patients in Ohio, as well as a $10,000 grant to the Opie Foundation to help patients in the UK. The Emily Whitehead Foundation has also funded a research study at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (PA, USA) investigating the neurocognitive effects of CAR T-cell therapy, and that data will be out later this year.
So, we’ve identified some ways to address bottlenecks and we are defining what else is needed to build and fund relevant and impactful programs.
Could you elaborate on the practical methods of amplifying patient voices and integrating their input earlier into the cell therapy development pipeline?
My background was in cGMP and research cell collection, and cell manufacturing. I met Tom Whitehead, Emily’s father and co-founder of the Emily Whitehead Foundation, at conferences like Advanced Therapies Europe and formed a friendship prior to becoming board chair. Bringing the patient voice to these conferences is vital because we’re often so far removed; for example, manufacturing operators in a clean room for 16 hours working on cells without knowing the cells’ origin. Connecting the patient at that level is important and connecting patients early in research and development demonstrates a practical impact.
Cell and gene therapies, like the treatment that cured Emily Whitehead, create a different type of connection than any other modality. We aim to establish these connections as early as possible, though time constraints can be a challenge. The Foundation plays a role in sharing these stories to keep people getting up in the morning and motivating innovation for children and everyone else with cancer.
If you could make one wish to better integrate the patient voice into the development process to enhance patient outcomes, what would that wish be?
I would wish for the primary focus to be listening to patients. Patients are really the experts in their disease. So many times we’ve seen agendas created for meetings and the idea of including a patient’s story arises as an afterthought.
For me, over the last few years I’ve tried to lead with a patient story and build the meetings around that, and it tends to be more effective. I think putting patient stories first gives so much more meaning to the work we do. Instead of paying lip service to being patient-centric, we should demonstrate it in action and the Emily Whitehead Foundation can serve as a partner in achieving that goal.
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views of RegMedNet or Future Science Group.