Blog | HemaCare

New webinar highlights the benefits of “dedicated donor pools” - the latest offering from HemaCare to accelerate successful cell therapy research and commercialization

HemaCare, through Charles River Labs, recently hosted an educational webinar focused on their latest cell and gene therapy-related service.

HemaCare will now be working with clients to establish “dedicated donor” pools. The purpose of this new program is to establish and maintain a pool of reliable, recallable donors with client-determined physiological and/or demographic characteristics that match specific client research projects and programs.

The product your lab chooses to fulfill their research needs largely depends on the stage of development. Are you conducting early drug discovery research involving several different candidates? Perhaps your company is involved in translational research, considering a lead candidate for clinical studies? What is your research budget? Choosing the right starting material for a specific project is a critical decision, but one that can sometimes be daunting.

Last week in Part 1 of our series, we presented observations from industry leaders into how they plan for success by installing comprehensive quality management systems and laying down detailed groundwork for an optimized transition to GMP-compliant starting materials and technologies. This week in Part 2 of our series, cell therapy manufacturers present their own perceptions of what constitutes an ideal cell therapy starting material supplier, as well as what can be done on their end to ensure their cell therapy retains consistent quality and potency. 

The emergence of cell and gene therapies onto the global stage is generating growing excitement, as unprecedented clinical success fuels the expectation of a promising new chapter in medicine. Alongside an extraordinary increase in the number of cell and gene therapies entering clinical trial, there are a lower yet still significant number of companies launching the commercialized manufacture of their cell therapy products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that they are adding staff and rolling out policy changes aimed at advancing the development of safe and effective cell and gene therapies. ^[1] The announcement came in the form of a press release on January 15^th, citing that the new policies are a response to the current surge in cell and gene therapy products that the agency is handling. Based on the number of investigational new drug (IND) applications being submitted, the FDA projects a significant rise in the number of therapies that will be approved over the next few years: