Jacques Galipeau, MD FRCP(C)
President, ISCT
Don and Marilyn Anderson Professor in Oncology
Associate Dean for Therapeutics Development
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
The ISCT ANZ recently concluded in August 2023 an extremely successful annual regional meeting in Perth, Western Australia attended by more than 205 delegates from more than 10 countries, 18 industry and governmental sponsors and a wildly successful ESP event attended by more than 50. Zlatibor Velickovic (ANZ regional VP) and Emily Blyth (ANZ regional VP-elect) and their crack team of regional volunteers made it all happen smoothly. Zlatibor even improvised a live rebroadcast of Matildas vs Lionesses during opening day reception by plugging in a streaming laptop to a big screen projector! Talk about adaptability and FIFA fortuitousness…
The meeting metrics are impressive and also highlight regional trends. Notably, a very strong showing of Asia region participants where one can foreshadow future evolving joint offerings to strengthen ISCT’ growing presence beyond Oceania. Incoming ISCT Asia regional VP, William Hwang made a compelling case for such and highlighted the pivotal role Singapore can play as a hub for academic and business networking bridge between Asia and Oceania regions.
In my direct participation in this meeting, I was impressed by the vigor of the ANZ CGT ecosystem. A bit of a primer. Australia is politically divided in to 6 states (equivalent to provinces in Canada) and ten territories. Australia's population of nearly 27 million is highly urbanized and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Canberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial center is Sydney. The next four largest cities are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. Australia is a big place. It takes 5 hours by plane to go from Sydney at the eastern edge to Perth at the western edge. Cities are distributed as nearly self-enclosed enclaves as a string of pearls around the periphery. Australia is an outdoor country and in the State of Western Australia and elsewhere, local SUVs are routinely furbished with snorkels, Gerry cans, long range radios, 2 spare tyres and Roo bars…
Impressively, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development worldwide ranking of countries pegs Australia as #1 in tertiary education, #2 in its “better life index” and #4 in social justice. This clear investment of Australians in their knowledge of economy and distributive justice translates to sizable governmental support for life sciences technology including CGT as manifest by core hub facilities designed to address CGT domestic market needs and also positioning for international industrial development. This governmental investment was highlighted by Jane Olario by the shining example of the Peter MacCallum Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy which complements the individual States furbishing hospital embedded GMP facilities throughout the country in addition to a vibrant parallel CGT industrial footprint.
Many of the attributes here highlighted can also be found in other national jurisdictions worldwide, however a specific feature bespoke to Australia (and NZ by extension) is that it represents a single national political unit, with an advanced healthcare system regulated uniformly by a country dedicated regulator – TGA. All these activities are funded and responsive to a singular government payor mindful of the social and economic needs of its electorate.
I can’t help but invoke Tolkien and cite his famous verse: One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
The ring metaphor applies to the interest of elected Australian policy leaders in CGT industrial development as well as sustainable deployment of approved therapies. To the traditional industrial drug development paradigm, Western Australia State parliamentarians are manifestly interested in leveraging publicly funded infrastructure to create a novel lane of regulator-approved bespoke [e.g.: autologous and selected allogeneic] cell therapies deployed through hospital place-of-care manufacturing and administration models. Conversation held with Government of Western Australia’ Angela Kelley (Acting Deputy Director General, Recovery Implementation and State Services) and most notably with Stephen Dawson - Minister for Emergency Services; Innovation & the Digital Economy; Science; Medical Research; State & Industry Development, Jobs and Trade and Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council – speak to the step-change in attention given by Government to social distributive issues uniquely related to CGTs. A core concept is leveraging existing hospital based GMP facilities designed for support of investigational studies to dual use for manufacture of locally deployed approved bespoke CGTs.
Reality is ahead of theory as exemplified by some test cases presented at the Perth meeting such as the successful pilot run of manufacturing anti-CD19 CAR-T vein-to-vein within 12 days at place-of-care program led by Glen Kennedy at The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital located in Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Ditto for a vibrant allogeneic virus specific T-cell program led by Emily Blyth at the Westmead Hospital and Health Care in Sydney, New South Wales.
My bet is that Australians can make this work. Whereas complementary public and private lanes for deployment of living therapies cures will be sustainable for the greater domestic good whilst maintaining an environment conducive for disruptive (in a good way) CGT innovations to arise over time for a worldwide market.
In closing, the presence and thought leadership of ISCT ANZ as a societal agent was felt and the Perth gathering is a brilliant example of such. It takes a platoon’s worth of committed volunteers to make these regional meetings successful and a shout out is well deserved for organizers and meeting chairs including ANZ-regional VP Zlatibor Velickovic and his team including regional VP elect Emily Blyth, Rebecca Lim, Leon Brownrigg, Gabrielle O'Sullivan and Dominic Wall. Successive sessions chaired by Aussie national talent Jennifer Hollands, Ngaire Elwood, Guy Klamer, Wei Jiang, Craig Wright, Kasey Kime, Cheryl Hutchins, Rajiv Khanna, Tessa Gargett, Jane Oliaro, Duncan Purtill, Dawn Driscoll and Early Stage Professionals Madison Paton & Jessica Sue.
Looking forward to more exciting developments at the 2024 ISCT ANZ regional meeting to be held in Queenstown NZ!
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