The revered President Droupadi Murmu unveiled on 4th April India’s first ever indigenous Car T-Cell therapy for cancer treatment, which has brought up great improvement in combating the disease. The event reception, held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay campus, Mumbai, was a perfect shining display of the “Make in India” initiative.
Jointly developed by IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Centre, the therapy harnesses genes that possess highly effective capabilities in killing cancerous cells in more ways than one manner. The therapy called NexCAR19 CAR T-cell therapy is one of its type in India since it has been produced in India. This allows for a significant reduction in costs of cancer treatment.
President Murmu, with a tone of pride, considered CAR T-cell therapy as great step in medical fraternity with that of the talent and knowledge of the Indian scientists and doctors. In her words, she expressed the fact that this method is the easily affordable and readily available to the people and giving new ray of hope to the people round the world against cancer.
The absolute price of being treated with NexCAR19 is low as Sudeep Gupta, the director of the Tata Memorial Centre, believes that the medication is approximately available for only 20 per cent of the international price. This achievement is a landmark event in cancer care in India, which will allow many patients who previously could not afford the therapy to have it available. Mr. Subhasis Chaudhuri, the Director of IIT Bombay, pointed out the crucial role of the low-cost approach to cell and gene therapy, which enables India to compete with countries on the map of stem cell therapy.
The opening of the history of gene therapy in cancer treatment and genetic engineering is a symbolic milestone of the advent of gene-based therapy in India. The procedure`s usage would help to expand the number of people who survived cancer and bring a smile to the faces of the cancer-affected ones.
