VIDEO: Effectiveness distinguishes CAR-T from other myeloma treatments

Editor’s note: This is a previously posted video, and the below is an automatically generated transcript to be used for informational purposes. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

A bit different in many ways. So it's not a drug, it's not a drug that I take out of a bottle and do it. It involves production of cells that are patient-specific. So we take blood cells from patients and we manipulate their blood cells or immune cells genomically, genetically, to provide those cells special characteristics to recognize myeloma cells and be able to kill them and then by themselves continue to grow. And so it requires modification of cell products, so it's a cellular product rather than a drug. That's one thing. Number two, it's autologous in majority of the cases, so patients' own cells are being given. On research side, we are also working on what we call allogeneic CAR T where we don't have to take anything from patients and we can infuse, so that's something in research that may have some important contribution in future if it turns out to be as good as we are hoping. Type of treatment wise, it is quite unique. We have to get something from patient and then give it back to the patient. On the second hand, how is it different from any other treatment? By its incredible effectiveness. I think any other drug we have, none of them, and we have very, very many good drugs. But as a single agent, it doesn't come anywhere near what CAR T-cell comes to, close to 95% responses even in a late stage. And the third thing that would be important is that currently, the way the CAR T-cell studies are done is what we call one and done thing, they get one CAR T-cell infusion, nothing else. And currently on the study, they don't get any maintenance, they're treatment-free for as long as the response lasts. In my personal opinion, I think that's gonna change a little bit because the incredible responses we get, we want to build on it so we can cure the patients. And so our research is ongoing where we can try to give something after the CAR T-cells as a short maintenance, not forever, and then hopefully, myeloma won't come back. And so currently, it's one and done, but there may be some shorter, briefer period of maintenance that might be added in near future to make it even more effective and longer lasting.