In his regular PharmaTimes feature, sustainability columnist Joe Newcombe looks out to pharma’s cleaner, greener horizon.
Seismic shifts in the pharma landscape are well underway. A record 13 cell or gene therapies are poised to be approved in 2023. Moreover, 222 new clinical trials were started for such advanced therapies last year. The number of approved advanced therapies is expected to continue to grow year-on-year for the foreseeable future.
In parallel, at the end of last year, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 removed the requirement for new drugs to be tested in two animal species before being tried in humans in the US. Similar steps are afoot in Europe, with the European parliament voting in favour of plans to phase out animal testing in research back in 2021.
These moves have been driven, in part, by increasing maturity of in vitro human models. We can expect to see greater prevalence of spheroid, organoid and organ-on-chip type assays in pharmaceutical development.
The cell culture media, a solution of essential nutrients for cell growth, is key to both of these significantly widening avenues in pharmaceutical development. This has made fertile ground for the cellular media market, which is now one of the fastest growing sectors in pharma and biotech.
Read the full column in PharmaTimes.
See Joe's other PharmaTimes columns.
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