Despite two years of the global COVID-19 crisis creating some of the most challenging conditions we have faced in recent history, the most difficult healthcare conditions to treat continue to be rare diseases and cancer. The latter can be tough to detect early and remains the second leading cause of death in the U.S., despite recent advancements.
One of the most promising areas for treating these diseases comes from the rapidly growing cell and gene therapy space. AGC Biologics is collaborating in developing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative biotech treatments to help reduce mortality rates and help patients living with rare diseases live longer, more fulfilling lives.
In his interview, Patricio highlights why he thinks innovations like cell and gene therapy-based treatments are helping to advance how we will treat rare diseases in 2022 and beyond.
“Biotechnology-based treatments are helping fight some of today’s most life-threatening diseases and are bringing promise to several areas of therapeutics, so it is hard to pick just one.
The advances we have seen in immuno-oncology are impressive, and I anticipate that this therapeutic area will continue to see a great deal of progress. With another treatment area, cell and gene therapies, any genetic disorder can potentially be treated. Both of these treatment areas have the potential to collide and produce fantastic results.
For example, today’s typical recombinant protein-based treatments (like monoclonal antibodies) are helping turn cancer into a chronic disease that doesn’t end life prematurely. We have seen tremendous progress here and will continue to see more in the coming years. In addition to these advances, there are cell and gene therapy oncology treatments being developed that have the potential to cure patients altogether.
We are still at the beginning of the cell and gene therapy revolution, and some of the treatments require early detection to make an impact on patient lives. Therefore, diagnostics is a third area we cannot forget. It is necessary to advance rapid and cheap genetic diagnostic testing in newborns and young children to avoid the development of some pathologies.
AGC Biologics is currently working with more than 100 processes that will treat or cure multiple diseases, and we anticipate exponential growth in treatments of life-threatening diseases coming to market that will improve the lives of millions of people.”