CTMC's 2025 Cell Therapy Manufacturing Outlook

Cell therapy development hit major milestones in 2024 advancing the mission toward two ambitious goals: cell therapies for solid tumors and therapies to treat multiple indications.

Looking back at the successes of 2024 and ahead at what’s coming this year, Jason Bock, CEO of cell therapy manufacturer CTMC, called the approval of two new cell therapies for solid tumors a major achievement. One is Iovance’s TIL therapy for melanoma, and the other is a TCR-T therapy for a rare type of sarcoma.

These therapies are significant because they target solid tumors, which account for 90% of all cancers and have been difficult for cell therapies to treat effectively, Bock says. He noted that the approved TIL therapy is a non-engineered cell taken directly from a tumor and expanded, and that engineered TILs will enhance persistence and potency.

TILs have broad applicability because their specificity comes from the cells extracted from the body, he says.

Engineered TILs may help overcome the limitations of un-engineered TILs, especially in less immunogenic tumors.