According to the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), 2022 was a record year with the approval of two new gene therapies to treat rare diseases. There has never been more than one new gene therapy to treat a rare disease approved in a single year. ARM states that the cell and gene therapy sector is resilient, with innovation and new business models continuing to bring “profound, durable and potentially curative benefits that are already helping thousands of patients worldwide, many of whom have no other viable treatment options.” 

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Terumo is a leading global medical technology company with over 100 years of advancing healthcare and enhancing patients’ quality of life with its innovative products and solutions for medical settings and patients. Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies, part of the Terumo Group, is focused on harnessing the power of blood and cells. The company is delivering expertise in automating cell therapy manufacturing to help reduce manual steps and bring speed, efficiency and scalability to the commercialization of therapies. 

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CEO Antoinette Gawin firmly believes in the ground-breaking effect of cell and gene therapies. and explains, “as we learn more about our own genetic material, about the power of our own cells and blood, we find more and more ways to heal ourselves with what we already have.” Cell therapies have the potential to go to the root cause and actually cure the diseases and that's what makes them powerful.”

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Cancer is among the leading causes of death worldwide. In one form or another, cancer research has been underway for more than 200 years and cancer is still not 100% curable, yet. In 2005, a five-year-old girl, Emily, was diagnosed with leukemia and after enduring 16 months of standard treatment she relapsed; her chance of survival was reduced from 90% to less than 30%. A glimpse of hope was presented to Emily’s family through a pediatric clinical trial where a patient’s CAR T Cells are taught to find and attack cancer cells. “We found a lot of hope in that, and we knew the standard treatment wasn't going to fix her at that point”, Emily’s father, Tom Whitehead says. “Twenty-three days after her first infusion of the CAR T-Cells she was cancer free, after 22 months of failed standard treatment.”

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Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies’ products were used to collect and process Emily’s T-Cells, supporting the treatment that offered her another chance at life. The company says, “cell & gene therapies are allowing us to use the word ‘cure’ with ‘cancer’ in the same sentence.”

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The company highly values collaboration in tackling the complexity of innovation in the healthcare sector. For example, it enjoys a fruitful 20-year partnership with GenCure, a biomanufacturing services company and subsidiary of BioBridge Global. The companies are working together to advance cell and gene therapy solutions by implementing automated cell therapy manufacturing that can replace manual processes. Becky Cap, COO at GenCure elaborates, “this offers us a path to get a wider range of solutions to patients more quickly and more cost-effectively.”

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Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies has been very intentional with the types of solutions and services provided for the cell and gene therapy market. Our aim is to unlock the potential of blood and cells to bring healing and hope.