Quarter Century Update: Thoughts on Reducing Costs of Goods

The past 25 years, from 2000 to 2025, have been an unprecedented and rapid period of development of the field of cell and gene therapy. A number of critical breakthroughs have occurred in this time, and the technologies have gone from preclinical musings to realities of standard clinical practice, at least in a few key indications like hematologic malignancies and neuromuscular disease. To get a perspective on how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go, CGTLive® reached out to Deborah Phippard, PhD, the chief scientific officer of Precision for Medicine, and Renier Brentjens, MD, PhD, the chair of the department of medicine and the deputy director at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, to hold a Special Report discussion on the topic entitled: "Quarter Century Update: What’s Holding up Progress in Development? Where Have We Seen the Most?"

In this episode, Phippard shared her thoughts with Brentjens about ways the field might reduce costs and advance cell and gene therapy over the next 25 years. She noted that while allogeneic approaches could lower manufacturing costs, they pose major immunological challenges. She also highlighted emerging research—such as gene therapy targeting GLP-1 for diabetes and obesity—as potentially transformative, since scalable delivery methods developed for large populations could later benefit rare disease applications. Phippard also emphasized the importance of public education to dispel misconceptions about gene therapy and the need for greater standardization across protocols, as current practices vary widely. Overall, she portrayed the field as being in an exciting, wide-open phase, full of possibilities, but still facing major scientific, logistical, and communication hurdles.