Mumbai: President Droupadi Murmu launched India’s first home-grown gene therapy for cancer at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT Bombay), here today, and termed the launch as a major breakthrough in our battle against cancer.
She said this line of gene therapy, named “CAR-T cell therapy”, was accessible and affordable, and provided a “new hope for the whole of humankind”. She expressed confidence that it will be successful in giving new lives to countless patients.
The President said that CAR-T cell therapy is considered to be one of the most phenomenal advances in medical science. It has been available in developed nations for some time, but it is extremely costly and beyond the reach of most patients around the world. She expressed her happiness that the therapy launched today was the world’s most affordable CAR-T cell therapy. She said that it was also an example of the ‘Make in India’ initiative; a shining example of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
India’s first CAR-T cell therapy is developed through collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital in association with industry partner ImmunoACT. Murmu said that this was a “praiseworthy example of academia-industry partnership, which should inspire many more similar efforts”.
The President said that IIT Bombay is renowned, not only in India but across the world, as a model of technology education. In the development of CAR-T cell therapy, technology is not only being put in the service of humanity, but partnerships have been with eminent institutions from other fields as well as with industry. This has been made possible by the focus IIT, Bombay has placed on research and development over the last three decades. She said that with the knowledge base and skills of the faculty and students of IIT Bombay and other similar institutions, India as a whole, would benefit greatly from the technological revolution underway.
– global bihari bureau
