Life Sciences Policy research + analysis

Cell and gene therapies: Rising to the challenge

June 2021

Evohealth White Paper

Cell and gene therapies: Rising to the challenge

Cell and gene therapies (CGTs) are changing the way that care is delivered to patients around the world. CGTs are not traditional medicine, in fact they differ in five key domains:

CGTs give hope, where no hope has existed before.

How does society expect the Government to respond?

We know that society accepts that some people require more support than others. CGTs provide an important and urgent opportunity for the Australian Government to provide this support. Rising to the challenge of making CGTs available to Australians who need it most, allows the Government to level the playing field for all.

Rising to the challenge

This White Paper examines how prepared the Australian health landscape is for the many CGTs that are expected to seek funding in the coming years. Importantly, we explore what society expects of Government to enable CGTs to address the urgent, unmet need of many Australians. Valuable oversight and advice has been provided to the authors by an expert advisory committee that included the voice of the patient, clinician, industry and academia.

Recommendations

The recommendations in this white paper will allow Australia to deliver on the promise of CGTs as a future of care for many Australians living with currently incurable cancers, viruses and rare debilitating conditions.