Cancer is one of the leading medical enigmas that doctors face today. It is a devastating disease that claims the lives of far too many people worldwide each year. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 million people worldwide discover each year that they have cancer, and out of these 14 million, approximately 8 million people die globally from cancer. There is no doubt regarding the fact that the race to find a cure for cancer is rapidly increasing in popularity. This is because the need for one is quite high. That is where immunotherapy treatment comes into play. Immunotherapy is a form of “therapy that harness[es] the power of a patient’s immune system to combat [his or her] disease” (CAR T-Cell Therapy).
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Juno Therapeutics, alone, raised approximately $304 million in the first 16 months of its existence by rapidly gaining support for this upcoming treatment possibility. This biotechnology company licenses experimental T-cell treatments at multiple hospitals and cancer research centers throughout the United States. In fact, this company “was among the largest stock market offerings in the history of the biotechnology industry” because of this newfound discovery that T cells can potentially be used to cure cancer (Regalado). That statement is a definite testament to the prospects in T-cell immunotherapy treatment and the overwhelming willingness to explore the possibilities it may offer. Juno Therapeutics, however, is not the only company taking root and attempting to get a footing in the adoptive cell therapy research. Over 30 other biotechnological companies have now initiated clinical tests or are in the process of planning them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has actually given Juno and the Novartis Company a “breakthrough designation” title for their immunological research. This means that their treatments for leukemia can be approved after only one larger clinical trial – making it easier to gain this approval while eliminating the gruesome red tape that most companies find themselves lodged within. (Regalado). This is a direct implication that this form of immunotherapy may actually become one of the fastest approvals for treatment in the history of medical biotechnology as MIT has
Juno Therapeutics, alone, raised approximately $304 million in the first 16 months of its existence by rapidly gaining support for this upcoming treatment possibility. This biotechnology company licenses experimental T-cell treatments at multiple hospitals and cancer research centers throughout the United States. In fact, this company “was among the largest stock market offerings in the history of the biotechnology industry” because of this newfound discovery that T cells can potentially be used to cure cancer (Regalado). That statement is a definite testament to the prospects in T-cell immunotherapy treatment and the overwhelming willingness to explore the possibilities it may offer. Juno Therapeutics, however, is not the only company taking root and attempting to get a footing in the adoptive cell therapy research. Over 30 other biotechnological companies have now initiated clinical tests or are in the process of planning them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has actually given Juno and the Novartis Company a “breakthrough designation” title for their immunological research. This means that their treatments for leukemia can be approved after only one larger clinical trial – making it easier to gain this approval while eliminating the gruesome red tape that most companies find themselves lodged within. (Regalado). This is a direct implication that this form of immunotherapy may actually become one of the fastest approvals for treatment in the history of medical biotechnology as MIT has