NexCAR 19 cancer therapy: Conceived at IIT Bombay, delivered in Tata Memorial
₹40-45 lakh. So far, NexCAR 19 has been administered to 98 patients (including 76 during clinical trials) across 45 hospitals. The response rate is 60-70%, according to data provided to Mint by ImmunoACT, a startup founded by Purwar and incubated at Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay to commercialize the therapy.
About 50% of the patients were completely cured after three months. The remainder showed a partial response, indicating they may need additional treatment, such as a bone marrow transplant or chemotherapy, ImmunoACT told Mint. Millions of people suffer from the kind of cancers CAR T-cell therapy addresses but the treatment is inaccessible for most people because of its prohibitive cost.
The team sought to develop a therapy that would make a difference in India and other developing countries, and proving its efficacy was the first step to that end. “We have done what the biggest pharma firms have not managed," Purwar told Mint. “When we started out, there were countless discussions with companies but no one was convinced.
They did not believe that a therapy developed by academia would bring them commercial success. Now that we have succeeded, things have changed," he added. To be sure, CAR T-cell therapy is not a silver bullet—success is not guaranteed.
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