Philadelphia Shines in Cell and Gene Therapy Research Pursuits

A recent report commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and researched by economic consulting firm Econsult Solutions, Inc. ranked the city No. 2 overall for cell and gene therapy (CGT) hubs. The analysis evaluated 14 US CGT hubs across five categories, including research infrastructure, human capital, innovation output, commercial activity, and value proposition. The only region to eclipse Philadelphia was Boston. New York and San Francisco ranked third and fourth, respectively.

According to the report, Greater Philadelphia researchers have been awarded at least $1 billion in NIH funding in each of the past five years. Focusing in more closely on research projects related to CGTs, more than $317 million in NIH funding has been awarded to Philadelphia investigators during that time period. Funding for CGT comprised 6% of total NIH funding in Philadelphia compared to a range of 0.7% to 5.2% in the comparison regions.

The volume of research funding is an indicator of the potential pipeline of discoveries and innovation that can be generated from basic academic research in the coming years.

In addition to the Pennsylvania city’s second-place showing in CGT hub prowess, the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia’s CEO Council for Growth, along with its partners in the Cell and Gene Therapy Initiative, have released a new video (https://bit.ly/3EnUfXU) on the Philadelphia region’s connected CGT startup ecosystem. Titled “Greater Philadelphia: Discovery Starts Here,” the 90-second video animation shares a snapshot of several of the region’s research institutions and a number of the CGT-focused companies that have licensed technologies.

The video highlights five of the region’s leading research institutions: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, University of Pennsylvania, and The Wistar Institute. It then shifts the focus to 15 companies that have direct links to one or more of those five research institutions. The video also distinguishes the organizations in four categories: emerging, privately held, publicly traded, or acquired.

The 15 CGT companies highlighted in the video include: Adaptimmune; Aevi Genomic Medicine, Inc. (acquired by Avalo Therapeutics, Inc.); Cabaletta Bio; Carisma Therapeutics; Cartio Therapeutics; Imvax; INOVIO; Interius BioTherapeutics; KOP Therapeutics; Passage Bio; Renovacor; Scout Bio; Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group; Verismo Therapeutics; and Virion Therapeutics.

For more information on the video and the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia’s CEO Council for Growth, the full press release can be found here.