What started as a dinner-table conversation has come to fruition with the approval of a lifesaving CAR-T therapy, said cancer physician, author and co-founder of Immuneel Therapeutics, Siddhartha Mukherjee, on the roll-out of Qartemi, the company’s first product for adult B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (B-NHL).
Benchmarked to international standards, this personalised therapy is for adults with relapsed B-NHL, said Immuneel’s top-management, adding, they are looking to keep this break-through therapy affordable for patients who needed it the most.
There is no “magic-formula” for cost reduction, said Mukherjee. “We sat down with the scientists and told them to dissect every step and asked which steps could be delivered in a more inexpensive manner, without compromising on quality,” he explained. The process is not static and there are regular internal reviews to cut price, without cutting corners, Mukherjee told businessline. “By combining world-class research CAR-T cell therapy with indigenous manufacturing, we are offering new hope to patients facing aggressive blood cancers,” he said.
Immuneel is co-founded by Biocon Group Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Mukherjee, cancer physician, Columbia University, and Kush M Parmar, Managing Partner, 5AM Ventures.
Since inception (2019), Immuneel’s mission was to offer affordable and innovative, lifesaving therapies for cancer that were otherwise inaccessible, said Shaw. “With Qartemi, our flagship CAR T-cell therapy, we aim to transform cancer treatment in India using globally advanced, personalised therapies at an affordable cost,” she said, in a statement.
The autologous product involves modifying a patient’s own T-cells to target and destroy cancer cells. The product Varnimcabtagene autoleucel was licensed from Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, where it was originally developed and used to treat patients with B-cell malignancies for over five years, Immuneel said. Data from clinical trials in India and Spain show that Qartemi’s safety and efficacy is similar to that of CAR T cell therapies approved by the USFDA, it added.
Bringing down cost
On pricing, Amit Mookim, Immuneel Chief Executive Officer said the product is made at their facility in Bengaluru and is priced at one-tenth the cost of a similar product in the US. The product cost in the US would be between $400,000 and $500,000, besides hospital costs and other charges adding up to $600,000-$700,000. “Our goal was to bring the cost down by at least 90 per cent, which we have achieved. We are also working towards bringing it down further,” he said.
In India, patients pay out-of-pocket and insurance still does not cover CAR-T, he says. Further, it’s a day-care procedure in the US, while in India, it involves hospital admission, he pointed out.
Hospital partners
The clinical trial (IMAGINE) was conducted in Narayana Hospital (Bengaluru), Apollo Cancer Hospital (Chennai) and PGIMER (Chandigarh), Immuneel said.
Further, the company has partnered with hospitals, including Narayana Health, Apollo Hospitals, CMC Vellore and Ludhiana, Manipal Hospitals, RGCIRC Delhi, SGPGI Lucknow, Amrita Hospital Faridabad, HOC Vedanta Ahmedabad, Cytecare Bangalore, Sparsh Bangalore, Marengo Asia Hospitals among others, it added.