Asembia ASX26: The Strain on the Development of Infrastructure for Sustainable C&G Therapy

While advances in cell & gene therapy continue to show promise for creating new treatments, this sector of the industry still faces a major hurdle: the high costs. Whether it’s on the R&D side or delivering and administering the treatment to the patients, cell& gene therapies are expensive.

Pharmaceutical Executive spoke with Aradigm Health CEO Will Shrank at the Asembia ASX26 Summit in Las Vegas. During the conversation, he explained the issues the payers face with cell & gene therapies, along with the strategies that the industry is using to move forward with these treatments.

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Pharmaceutical Executive: What causes the biggest strain on the development of infrastructure for sustainable cell & gene therapy?
Will Shrank: I wish there was just one thing that I can point to and say is the biggest problem, and let's solve it. We have a really fragmented way that we pay for and deliver care in the US, and it's absolutely interfering with everybody along across the healthcare ecosystem ability to advocate for and produce/provide affordable, sustainable access to these therapies.

It's hard for providers who don't know how much volume they're going to get and how much they're going to get paid for these therapies to invest sustainably in creating a business model to deliver these therapies. It's hard for purchasers, whether it's a payer or a self-insured employer, to think about these upfront costs in the setting where patients/members don't stay with them.

It's hard for manufacturers, who had some really unimpressive launches with incredible products, to price these therapies in a way that support market access. Ultimately, it calls for an ecosystem approach, a more systemic approach, that requires us all to take a step back and think about how everyone across the ecosystem gives a little, sits at the same table, and we can get a lot.