Development of Cell and Gene Therapy can Help Treat Several Serious or Rare Diseases
Cell and gene therapies are overlapping fields of biomedical research having similar therapeutic goals, which target DNA or RNA inside or outside the body. Both therapies aim at modifying genetic material for the treatment of a disease. Gene therapy uses genetic material, or DNA, to manipulate a patient’s cells for the treatment of an inherited or acquired disease. Cell therapy is the process of the introduction of new cells into a patient’s body to grow, replace, or repair damaged tissue to treat a disease. A variety of cells can be used in cell therapy, including stem cells, lymphocytes, dendritic cells, and pancreatic islet cells.
The development of gene therapies represents a new frontier in science as these therapies have the potential to help many patients with severe or rare diseases. Although the field of gene therapy has experienced significant setbacks and limited success, it is still one of the most promising and active research fields in medicine.
There are two approaches to the development of gene therapy, such as in-vivo and ex-vivo. The in-vivo strategy involves direct delivery of DNA (usually via a viral vector) to resident cells of the target tissue. There are two basic requirements, firstly, the target cells should be easily accessible for infusion or injection of virus, and secondly, the transferred vector specifically infects, integrates, and expresses the therapeutic gene (transgene) in target cells. Currently, the lentivirus derived vectors appear to be the most promising for future in-vivo clinical applications.
According to the market intelligence study published by BIS Research, “Global Cell and Gene Therapy Market — Analysis and Forecast, 2019–2025”, the market is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 36.52% during the forecast period, 2019–2025.
The major factors responsible for driving the market growth are increasing prevalence of cancer and chronic diseases, rising number of clinical trials for cell and gene therapy, steady investment and consolidation in the cell and gene therapy market, and favorable regulatory environment. All these factors are expected to have a high impact on the market in the next one or two years but are expected to have a medium impact on the market in the distant future.
For the purpose of study and analysis, the market is segmented on the basis of products, therapeutic class, and region. Based on region, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest-of-the-World. The region of North America is contributed the maximum revenue to the market in 2019 with a total share of $ 1,050.1 million and is projected to maintain its dominance in the future as well i.e. by 2025.
