Industry calls for better collaboration on gene therapy

The lobby group European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises has called for greater collaboration between universities, hospitals and industry to develop gene therapy techniques.

In a report released on 15 April, EBE says that advanced therapies research in Europe is well established but that very few treatments have made it to market. Such treatments use a patient’s own cells to avoid the risks of immune rejection involved in other transplant therapies, and are part of a growing trend in medical research towards personalised medicine.

EBE argues that new approaches are needed to help products move from the lab to the shelf. As part of this, intellectual property regulation needs to be streamlined to remove bureaucracy and help partnering between universities and industry, the group states.