Dolores Baksh BSc, BASc, MASc, phD

Dr. Dolores Baksh, the new Innovation Leader for Cell Therapy at GE Healthcare, shared this quote at the end of her presentation at the recent Till & McCulloch Meetings in Ottawa (October 27-29). It encapsulates GEs approach to commercialization and underlines why the company opened a £3M facility for the study of cell sciences in Cardiff, Wales, in December 2012.

Could cell therapy be a trillion dollar industry by 2025? GE thinks so, and given the incredible speed at which the industry is growing, one could be convinced. With a great deal of foresight, and a recognition of the cell manufacturing ecosystem required for support, GE is striving to position itself as the go-to provider of streamlined, automated manufacturing systems for the generation of immunotherapy doses – by the thousands. However, there is a litany of cost considerations involved in the development of cell-based immunotherapies. So, companies like GE and Novartis, another giant that has entered the space, are giving serious thought to new business models and cost structures, and how infrastructure will most optimally be built.