News
Sponsored Department of Medicine, HKU HK$3 Million for a clinical research project on CAR-T therapy (May 2023 - 2025)
20/8/2024
- CAR-T cell therapy is the latest technology of cell therapy which can effectively improve the chance of cure by killing cancer cells through the patient’s own immune system.
- In 2020, the Trust has sponsored Department of Medicine, HKU $3.5 million in support of key staff training for the "Good Manufacturing Practice (“GMP”) Laboratory" to facilitate the development of stem-cell based therapies towards research for clinical trials.
- In May 2023, the HKUMed Laboratory of Cellular Therapeutics, the very first GMP facility in Hong Kong, has been opened which aims at producing clinical grade Advanced Therapy Products for clinical trials.
- Simultaneously, the Trust has approved to sponsor the Division of Haematology, Medical Oncology and Haemopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Department of Medicine, HKU HK$3 Million for a clinical research project on CAR-T therapy in which homemade CAR-T cell products will be manufactured in the aforesaid GMP Laboratory at a much lower price than that of the non-locally made products.
- The project will provide CAR-T therapy for 15 patients with refractory lymphoma and it is expected that CAR-T therapy will have higher efficacy than the conventional treatment and long term survival was also seen in 30-60% of these patients who would have died otherwise within six months.