Beyond the discount retailers and chain coffee shops in Stevenage High Street stands a facility manufacturing the latest generation of an innovative, personalised cancer treatment. From the heart of the English commuter town, UK biotech Autolus will process, manufacture and ship to the US a new Car-T cell therapy to treat the blood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), after it received the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration in November. The first Car-T therapies were approved in 2017 and they remain one of the most personalised medicines in oncology, leading to long-term remission for some patients. They are made by taking immune system cells from an individual patient, re-engineering them to kill tumours more effectively and putting them back into that patient. But despite high hopes for the drugs when they were first introduced, steep costs, complex supply chains and gruelling side effects mean they are used only after other treatments have failed, limiting sales to date.

Full story : Autolus hopes its less gruelling Car-T treatment for a type of leukaemia will allow it to compete with bigger rivals.