CAR-T Meeting 2021 | Collaboration in the field of cellular therapies
Sofie Terwel, MSc, EBMT GoCART, Leiden, Netherlands, describes the importance of collaboration in the field of cellular therapies, where the challenges are so significant that only all the stakeholders collectively can address them. For instance, because cellular therapies are novel, none of the European countries can generate sufficient data to do meaningful analysis. Therefore, a central registry, preferably academically owned, for data collection is essential. Although sharing CAR-T cell data is of extreme importance, is it also a sensitive issue. To find solutions to the challenges and maximize collaboration, the European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) established the GoCART coalition. This interview took place during the 3rd European CAR T-cell Meeting.
Transcript (edited for clarity)
I’ll be positioning this topic in the context of collaboration in the field of cellular therapies, where we feel that the challenges are so big, that none of the stakeholders can really address them by themselves. And also in terms of data collection, that we really feel that the cellular therapies are still so novel that none of the countries, even the bigger countries in Europe, can generate sufficient numbers to do meaningful analysis...
I’ll be positioning this topic in the context of collaboration in the field of cellular therapies, where we feel that the challenges are so big, that none of the stakeholders can really address them by themselves. And also in terms of data collection, that we really feel that the cellular therapies are still so novel that none of the countries, even the bigger countries in Europe, can generate sufficient numbers to do meaningful analysis. So we need to do this together in a central registry, that’s, of course, preferably academically owned, so we can access this. And then in terms of data sharing, of course, this is a very sensitive issue, and there’s a number of challenges that can be identified, I think, according to three levels. One, political, two, regulatory, and three, technical.
GoCART is a multi-stakeholder coalition. We’re relatively new. This is one of the topics that we are working on. It’s very much work in progress, and of course, solutions need to be found to solve the challenges of the three levels that I identified. But we’ll be presenting an open call for research proposals shortly. And we’ll also use that as a pilot project to develop procedures for doing that in a more consistent and elaborate way in the future.
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