A digital platform for the design of patient-centric supply chains

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies have received increasing attention, showing promising results in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and aggressive B cell lymphoma. Unlike typical cancer treatments, autologous CAR T cell therapies are patient-specific; this makes them a unique therapeutic to manufacture and distribute. In this work, we focus on the development of a computer modelling tool to assist the design and assessment of supply chain structures that can reliably and cost-efficiently deliver autologous CAR T cell therapies. We focus on four demand scales (200, 500, 1000 and 2000 patients annually) and we assess the tool’s capabilities with respect to the design of responsive supply chain candidate solutions while minimising cost

Assessment of intermediate storage and distribution nodes in personalised medicine

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies are a type of patient-specific cell immunotherapy demonstrating promising results in the treatment of aggressive blood cancer types. CAR T cells follow a 1:1 business model, translating into manufacturing lines and distribution nodes being exclusive to the production of a single therapy, hindering volumetric scale up. In this work, we address manufacturing capacity bottlenecks via a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model. The proposed formulation focuses on the design of candidate supply chain network configurations under different demand scenarios. We investigate the effect of an intermediate storage upstream of the network to: (a) debottleneck manufacturing lines and (b) increase facility utilisation. In this setting, we assess cost-effectiveness and flexibility of the supply chain and we evaluate network performance with respect to: (a) average production cost and (b) average response treatment time. The trade-off between cost-efficiency and responsiveness is examined and discussed

Autologous CAR T-cell therapies supply chain: challenges and opportunities?

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are considered a potentially disruptive cancer therapy, showing highly promisingresults. Their recent success and regulatory approval (both in the USA and Europe) are likely to generate a rapidly increasingdemand and a need for the design of robust and scalable manufacturing and distribution models that will ensure timely andcost-effective delivery of the therapy to the patient. However, there are challenging tasks as these therapies are accompaniedby a series of constraints and particularities that need to be taken into consideration in the decision-making process. Here, wepresent an overview of the current state of the art in the CAR T cell market and present novel concepts that can debottleneckkey elements of the current supply chain model and, we believe, help this technology achieve its long-term potential