Low Market Attention for China's Fourth Approved CAR-T Therapy Despite Clinical Promise
Juventas
Innovative Cell Therapy Drug Developer
China-produced CAR-T therapy continues to advance.
On November 8, according to the NMPA website, Juventas' CD19 CAR-T therapy, Naciaurolsen Injection, was approved for marketing in China. It is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r B-ALL).
This is the first CAR-T product approved for marketing in China to treat leukemia, and it is also the fourth CAR-T therapy to be launched.
However, compared with the extensive attention previously garnered by the CAR-T therapy launches from companies like WuXi JWR (WuXi AppTec), the market discussion around this particular therapy has been relatively muted.
This also reflects that, in the absence of satisfactory commercial results from China's CAR-T therapy pioneers, the overall enthusiasm for the sector is cooling down.
/ 01 /
The Dilemma of Commercialization
CAR-T therapy has always been known as a "miracle cancer drug." Indeed, in terms of treatment effectiveness, CAR-T therapy has demonstrated strong competitiveness in the field of hematological tumors due to its unique mechanism.
Nanjolumab is no exception. r/r B-ALL, with a lack of effective clinical treatments and poor patient prognosis, has a survival period of only 2-6 months. From the results of single-arm clinical trials, Nanjolumab has demonstrated the potential for sustained high remission rates.
However, for a drug, commercial success depends on many factors, among which price is particularly crucial. Due to the limitations of specialized manufacturing processes, CAR-T therapies are priced higher, with all three therapies previously launched in China exceeding 1 million yuan.
Currently, the lowest-priced option is Idecabtagene Vicleucel Injection from CARsgen Therapeutics, priced at 1.166 million yuan. This is only the cost of the drug itself; when treatment costs are added, the financial burden on patients will increase further.
The high price makes it difficult to be included in medical insurance, and the coverage of commercial insurance is also limited, leading to an unsatisfactory sales performance for CAR-T therapies launched in China.
In the first half of the year, the sales revenue of the pioneer company, Juventas, was still only 87.74 million yuan, with a loss close to 400 million yuan. Against this backdrop, Juventas' stock price continued to fall, inevitably sending a chill to other latecomers.
/ 02 /
Dawn May Be Just Ahead
Of course, problems do exist, but the industry is also continuously improving. Regarding the issue of excessively high pricing, there will inevitably be a solution for CAR-T therapies produced in China in the future.
The comprehensive factors such as customized production, expensive upstream raw materials and production equipment, and complex supply chain systems are the core reasons for the high price of CAR-T therapy, which naturally also indicates the direction for improvement.
Currently, pharmaceutical companies such as JW Therapeutics, Hengrui Dalsheng, and CARsgen Therapeutics are attempting to overcome challenges in viral vector technologies, hoping to reduce production costs and benefit more patients.
At the same time, some pharmaceutical companies are also attempting to break through at the technical level by exploring universal cell therapy products such as allogeneic CAR-T and CAR-NK, in order to reduce the final production cost.
Looking to the future, CAR-T therapy is still very young. As more Chinese pharmaceutical companies continue to explore, its accessibility in China will inevitably continue to improve. And the companies that take the lead will surely reap corresponding rewards.
Text by Huang Kai
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