How Do We Attain Sustainability, Affordability and Availability of CAR T Therapies?

Speaker(s)

Moderator: Amanda Whittal, PhD. Health Psychology, Dolon Ltd, London, LON, UK
Panelists: Anne Kerber, MD., Degree in Pharmaceutical Medicine, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Nieder Olm, Germany; Konstantinos Lykopoulos, MSc. International Health Policy and Health Economics, Kite, A Gilead Company, London, UK; Tarang Sharma, MS, MPH, PhD, Access to Medicines and Health Products, WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 84, Denmark

ISSUE: As novel treatments with high therapeutic potential, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapies represent a significant advancement in medical innovation. At the same time, pricing and reimbursement (P&R) in Europe is particularly challenging for CAR Ts because of their unique characteristics and high price. To ensure patients can benefit from these treatments, there is a need to better understand the different challenges faced by healthcare systems, payers and manufacturers, and what ways forward might look like for all stakeholders involved. Determining how CAR Ts can be sustainable, affordable and available thus requires exploring their value and challenges, and finding suitable solutions for managing evidence and/or affordability concerns while bringing these valuable therapies to patients.

OVERVIEW: An overview of CAR Ts will be presented, including how they differ from more conventional therapies, the current challenges they face, and potential solutions (10 minutes, moderator). The core themes around the presented challenges and possible solutions for CAR T innovation will first be addressed from the policy/payer perspective, including whether the challenges are comprehensive and accurate, and whether the solutions are feasible from the point of view being represented (13 minutes, Sarah Garner, WHO). These core themes will then be scrutinised and addressed in the same way from the perspective of CAR T development and manufacturing (13 minutes, Anne Kerber, BMS), and from the perspective of CAR T economics (13 minutes, Konstantinos Lykopoulos, Kite).

The conversation will then be opened for the audience to comment and ask questions to the panel. The intention of the discussion will be to explore whether there is any common agreement among the different perspectives, and what potential ways forward could look like to make CAR T innovation sustainable for all stakeholders (11 minutes).

This panel session may benefit manufacturers, payers, policy makers and patient organisations.

Code

312

Topic

Health Policy & Regulatory