Production and Application of CAR T Cells: Current and Future Role of Europe.

Rapid developments in the field of CAR T cells offer important new opportunities while at the same time increasing numbers of patients pose major challenges. This review is summarizing on the one hand the state of the art in CAR T cell trials with a unique perspective on the role that Europe is playing. On the other hand, an overview of reproducible processing techniques is presented, from manual or semi-automated up to fully automated manufacturing of clinical-grade CAR T cells. Besides regulatory requirements, an outlook is given in the direction of digitally controlled automated manufacturing in order to lower cost and complexity and to address CAR T cell products for a greater number of patients and a variety of malignant diseases.
Competing Interests: AQ and PL declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. VV discloses honoraria for Novartis, Gilead, BMS, and travel grants from Gilead. SF states honorary activities for Novartis. With regard to the production of cell therapeutics, there are cooperations with the companies Novartis and Miltenyi Biotec. UP discloses consulting and fee for service activities for Novartis, Gilead and BMS. UK states that she is a consultant in immuno-oncology for AstraZeneca, Affimed, Glycostem, GammaDelta and Zelluna, and that she has collaborations with Novartis and Miltenyi Biotec regarding the production of CAR-T cells.
(Copyright © 2021 Vucinic, Quaiser, Lückemeier, Fricke, Platzbecker and Koehl.)