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Designing the Future of Cell Therapies

Designing the Future of Cell Therapies

Designing the Future of Cell Therapies

Thank you to all that attended! Click HERE to access the meeting whitepaper.

For a recap of the event, check out our Engaging Innovation blog.

The Ritz-Carlton
​1150 22nd Street NW
​Washington​, ​DC ​20037

Friday, May 17, 2019
8:45 AM EDT – 12:45 PM EDT

Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy are pleased to convene a public meeting bringing together leaders in cancer drug development, federal health and regulatory agencies, academic research, the private sector, and patient advocates to address key concepts and issues in cellular therapy development.

Advancements in science have led to an improved understanding of cancer and the fruition of personalized therapies, such as immunotherapies. Research on T-cell receptor (TCR)-based therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, have emerged and may represent a new paradigm for treating cancers. To date, the use of CAR T-cell therapy is limited to certain types of leukemia and lymphoma and is available at a limited number of FDA-approved treatment centers. TCR-based therapies face several challenges, including unique development and manufacturing needs, which require an examination of current regulatory frameworks to ensure they are aligned to facilitate rapid development, commercialization, and evolution of these safe and effective therapies.

Friends and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy will be addressing these issues through a multi-stakeholder working group that is further developing proposals and/or pilot projects. These proposals will seek to optimize the regulatory process to adapt to future cell therapy development and be presented at the meeting.

Scroll through to view the full meeting agenda.

If you have any questions please contact Heather Chaney at hchaney@focr.org or (202) 944-6719.

Meeting Agenda

8:00 AM – Registration and Breakfast

8:45 AM – Welcome

  • Ellen Sigal & Jeff Allen, Friends of Cancer Research
  • Jeff Bluestone, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy

9:00 AM – Opening Keynote

  • Richard Klausner, Lyell Immunopharma

9:10 AM – Panel 1: Enhancing Early Phase Development of Cellular Therapies
Moderator: Bruce Levine, University of Pennsylvania

  • Carl June, University of Pennsylvania
  • Michael Kalos, Janssen
  • Anne Keane, Lyell Immunopharma
  • Crystal Mackall, Stanford University
  • Antoni Ribas, University of California Los Angeles
  • Kim Schultz, U.S. FDA
  • Yuan Xu, Legend Biotech

10:10 AM – Break

10:25 AM – Panel 2: Processes to Enable Adaptive Manufacturing Processes During Late Stage Development and Post-Approval
Moderator: Alex Marson, University of California San Francisco

  • Lisa Butterfield, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
  • Axel Hoos, GlaxoSmithKline
  • Alison Moore, Allogene Therapeutics
  • Timothy Moore, Kite, A Gilead Company
  • Mayo Pujols, Novartis
  • Chris Ramsborg, Juno Therapeutics, A Celgene Company
  • Zenobia Taraporewala, U.S. FDA

11:25 AM – Refreshment Break

11:45 AM – Fireside Chat: Future Directions for Cell & Gene Therapies
Moderator: Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post

  • Arie Belldegrun, Allogene Therapeutics
  • Peter Marks, U.S. FDA
  • Steven Rosenberg, National Cancer Institute
  • Tom Whitehead, Whitehead Foundation

12:45 PM – Closing Remarks

About Friends of Cancer Research
Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) drives collaboration among partners from every healthcare sector to power advances in science, policy and regulation that speed lifesaving treatments to patients.

About the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy brings together the best scientists, clinicians and industry partners to build a smarter and more coordinated cancer immunotherapy research effort.

The Parker Institute is an unprecedented collaboration between the country’s leading immunologists and cancer centers. The program started by providing institutional support to six academic centers, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford Medicine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The institute also provides programmatic support for top immunotherapy investigators, including a group of researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Robert Schreiber, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Philip Greenberg, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Stephen Forman, MD, of City of Hope.

The Parker Institute network also includes more than 40 industry and nonprofit partners, more than 60 labs and more than 170 of the nation’s top researchers focused on treating the deadliest cancers. The goal is to accelerate the development of breakthrough immune therapies capable of turning most cancers into curable diseases. The institute was created through a $250 million grant from The Parker Foundation.

Friends of Cancer Research and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy are pleased to convene a public meeting bringing together leaders in cancer drug development, federal health and regulatory agencies, academic research, the private sector, and patient advocates to address key concepts and issues in cellular therapy development.