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Premium Insights Cell & gene therapy in pharma: CAR-T cell based therapies

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According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 668,000 patents to analyze innovation intensity for the pharmaceutical industry, there are 80+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.

CAR-T cell-based therapies is a key innovation area in cell & gene therapy

CAR-T cell-based therapies, short for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, represent a groundbreaking approach to treating certain types of cancer. These therapies involve the genetic modification of a patient’s own T cells to target and destroy cancer cells more effectively. CAR-T cell therapies have shown remarkable success in treating hematologic malignancies, particularly B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. The CAR consists of several components, among which extracellular antigen-binding domain typically contains a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) or another antigen-binding domain engineered to recognize a specific cancer cell antigen. The transmembrane domain anchors the CAR within the T cell’s membrane. Intracellular signaling domains activate the T cell upon antigen recognition.

GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 1,000+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established pharmaceutical companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of CAR-T cell-based therapies.

Key players in CAR-T cell-based therapies – a disruptive innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

 ‘Application diversity’ measures the number of applications identified for each patent. It broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.   

‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of countries each patent is registered in. It reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.  

Patent volumes related to CAR-T cell-based therapies

Immatics is one of the leading patent filers in CAR-T cell-based therapies. Immatics is a biopharmaceutical company that has been involved in the development of CAR-T cell therapies targeting specific cancer antigens. Immatics' CAR-T therapies are based on T-cell receptors (TCRs), which are different from traditional CARs. The company has a pipeline of TCR-based therapies in development. In 2022, Immatics and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) expanded their strategic alliance to pursue the development of multiple allogeneic off-the-shelf TCR-T and/or CAR-T programs. BMS and GSK are some of the other key patent filers in CAR-T cell-based therapies.

In terms of application diversity, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals leads the pack, while Immatics and Inovio Pharmaceuticals stood in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Coherus BioSciences held the top position, followed by Immatics and Pfizer.

To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the pharmaceutical industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Pharmaceutical.

GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.

GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.