ARM State of the Industry briefing

It’s official: the state of regenerative medicine is strong

/ Kevin McCormack / 2 Comments
A panel discussion to a packed house at the annual ARM State of the Industry briefing

Calling it a “year of dramatic impact for patients” Janet Lambert, the CEO of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), gave the annual “State of the Industry” briefing today in San Francisco.

The briefing is a traditional kick-off event to mark JP Morgan week in the City, a time when hotel rooms go for $1,000 a night and just reserving a table in the lobby for meetings can set you back hundreds of dollars. Fortunately, the ARM briefing is free. And worth every penny.

Janet Lambert, CEO Alliance for Regenerative Medicine

Lambert ran down the numbers that highlighted how the field is growing and expanding:

  • 987 companies world wide – most of those in the US
  • 1,000 + clinical trials
  • $9.8 billion in revenue/investments

Saying “for many of these patients these therapies don’t just bring improvements, they bring dramatic improvements” Lambert pointed out that when those 1,000 clinical trials are fully enrolled it will mean 60,000 patients getting stem cell and gene therapies. She says it’s estimated that in the coming years around half a million patients in the US alone will get one of those therapies.

More and more of the clinical trials are at advanced stages:

  • 100 Phase 3
  • 591 Phase 2
  • 381 Phase 1

The biggest sector for clinical trials is cancer, but there are also substantial numbers for central nervous system therapies, muscular skeletal and even rare diseases.

Lambert said there are two key issues facing the field in the coming year. One is improving the industry’s manufacturing capability to ensure we are able to produce the cells needed to treat large numbers of patients. As evidence she cited the fact that Pfizer and Novartis are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in in-house manufacturing facilities. 

The second key issue is reimbursement, so that companies can get paid for delivering those treatments to patients.  “There is appetite and interest in this from people around the world, but right now most conversations about reimbursement are taking place one at a time. We haven’t yet evolved to the point where we have standard models to help get products to market and help them be commercially successful.”

The forecast for the year ahead? “Sunny with some clouds. 2019 was a year of significant growth and we enter 2020 with hopes of continued expansion, as we look to grow the impact on patients.” 

By the numbers – a look at how the field of Regenerative Medicine is growing

/ Kevin McCormack / 6 Comments

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ARM State of the Industry briefing

The Golden State Warriors, the current US basketball champions – and your favorite Stem Cell Agency’s neighbors in Oakland – have a slogan, “Strength in Numbers”. That could well apply to the field of Regenerative Medicine because the field is growing in numbers, growing in strength, and growing in influence.

Yesterday, the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the organization that represents the field, held its annual State of the Industry briefing in San Francisco, detailing what happened in 2018. It was pretty impressive.

In fact, just the number of people in the room was impressive. More than 800 RSVP’d for the event, more than for any previous meeting, but even then the room was filled over capacity with many standing around the edges because there were no seats left.

ARM itself is growing, 32 percent last year, and now has more than 300 members. Other impressive numbers include:

  • 906 gene and cell therapy companies worldwide
  • 484 gene and cell therapy companies in the US alone
  • 1,028 clinical trials taking place worldwide
  • 598 of those clinical trials (58 percent of the total) are targeting cancer
  • 59,575 patients are slated to be enrolled in those trials

All those numbers are up dramatically on last year. You can see all the details on the ARM website.

Another sign the industry is growing comes in the amount of money being invested. When people are willing to pony up hard cash you know it’s a sign they believe in you. Last year the field raised $13.8 billion worldwide, that’s up a whopping 73 percent on 2017. That represented a strong year across all fronts from corporate partnerships to Initial Public Offerings (several CIRM-supported companies such as Orchard Therapeutics and Forty Seven Inc. are in that number) and venture capital investments.

Clearly there are still challenges ahead, such as figuring out ways to pay for these therapies when they are approved so that they are available to the people who need them, the patients.

One of the issues that is going to be front and center in 2019 is reimbursement and developing new payment models. But that in itself is a sign of a maturing field. In past years the emphasis was on developing new treatments. Now that those are in the pipeline, we’re working on ways to pay for them.

That’s progress.