Will blood cancer treatment become cheaper in India with this new CAR T-cell therapy? Here’s how you can avail it in top hospitals

Oncologist Siddharth Mukherjee’s Immuneel holds out hope for those whose cancer fails to respond to other treatments

CAR T-cell therapy — or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy — works by training the body’s own immune cells to find and kill cancer cells. (Getty Image)

An immunotherapy to treat those with blood cancer that has relapsed and stopped responding to treatment will soon become available across several leading hospitals in the country. Qartemi by Immuneel Therapeutics — backed by the Pulitzer-winning cancer physician Dr Siddharth Mukherjee and biotech entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw — is the second CAR T-cell therapy to become available in the country.

What is CAR T-cell therapy?

CAR T-cell therapy — or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy — works by training the body’s own immune cells to find and kill cancer cells. For the therapy, the patient’s immune T-cells are collected and engineered in a lab to add receptors that can bind with the cancer cells. Without these acquired tools, cancer cells can evade normal T-cells easily. These modified cells are then multiplied and infused in the patient. With the treatment tailored for each individual patient, these therapies can cost a lot.

Who is the therapy meant for?

Qartemi is approved for the treatment of a type of blood cancer called the Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma — a condition where the body starts producing too many abnormal white blood cells. India sees just under 40,000 cases and nearly 23,000 deaths due to this type of cancer each year, according to Global Cancer Observatory data.

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However, this therapy is not meant for all patients with the disease — it is meant for those in whom the cancer has returned and is no longer responding to other treatments.

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While the therapy has been licensed from Spain, a phase II trial conducted on 24 paediatric and adult cancer patients from India showed that 83.3% of them responded completely or partially to the treatment.

Where will it be available?

The company has tied up with leading hospitals across the country including Narayana Health where the trials were conducted. The hospitals that Immuneel has partnered with includes Apollo hospitals, CMC Vellore and Ludhiana, Manipal Hospitals, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer hospital in Delhi, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Hospital Faridabad, HOC Vedanta Ahmedabad, Cytecare Bangalore, Sparsh Bangalore, Marengo Asia Hospitals among others.

How much will this therapy cost?

It will be priced between Rs 35 and 50 lakh, comparable to the other CAR T-cell therapy available in the country. The therapy developed by ImmunoAct, a collaboration between IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial, also works on similar blood cancers and is offered at around Rs 40 lakh.

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With no scope for mass manufacturing and requirement of state-of-art laboratories for engineering the cells, the therapies are costly. Several research groups across the country, however, are working on different CAR T-cell therapies, with the hope that the costs reduce incrementally over the years.

What are the other therapies the company is working on?

Immuneel is working on a treatment for leukaemia with the same target. Other than that, the company is working on a multiple myeloma treatment with a well-known target called B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA).

Similarly, ImmunoAct is working on a multiple myeloma treatment targeting BCMA. They are also working on a treatment for two types of brain cancers with a lipid called GD2 as target and a treatment for gastric cancers with an undisclosed target.

Anonna Dutt

Anonna Dutt is a Principal Correspondent who writes primarily on health at the Indian Express. She reports on myriad topics ranging from the growing burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension to the problems with pervasive infectious conditions. She reported on the government’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic and closely followed the vaccination programme. Her stories have resulted in the city government investing in high-end tests for the poor and acknowledging errors in their official reports. Dutt also takes a keen interest in the country’s space programme and has written on key missions like Chandrayaan 2 and 3, Aditya L1, and Gaganyaan. She was among the first batch of eleven media fellows with RBM Partnership to End Malaria. She was also selected to participate in the short-term programme on early childhood reporting at Columbia University’s Dart Centre. Dutt has a Bachelor’s Degree from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune and a PG Diploma from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. She started her reporting career with the Hindustan Times. When not at work, she tries to appease the Duolingo owl with her French skills and sometimes takes to the dance floor. ... Read More

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