In This Issue

Accreditation Statistics

As of August 1, 2023

Cellular Therapy Entities

  • Accredited: 255
  • Applicants: 26

Cord Blood Banks

  • Accredited: 53
  • Applicants: 9

Congratulations to the following organizations for achieving initial accreditation:

Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Medicine: Adult autologous hematopoietic progenitor cellular therapy, peripheral blood cellular therapy product collection, and cellular therapy product processing with minimal manipulation

Sarah Cannon Transplant & Cellular Therapy Program at MountainView Hospital: Adult autologous hematopoietic progenitor cellular therapy, immune effector cellular therapy administration, peripheral blood cellular therapy product collection, and cellular therapy product processing with minimal manipulation

A complete list of accredited organizations can be found at www.factglobal.org.

FACT Encourages Completion of CAR-T and Cellular Therapy Worldwide Survey

Posted in :: 2023 Volume 4 :: Thursday, July 27th, 2023

The Worldwide Network for Blood & Marrow Transplantation (WBMT), in conjunction with assistance from the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, has initiated a CAR-T and Cellular Therapy survey. The purpose of the survey is to better understand the worldwide situation with regards to the availability of both commercially approved and investigational CAR-T therapy as well as other forms of advanced cell-based therapy (e.g., mesenchymal stromal cells). It will provide insight not only into the availability of these therapies worldwide but also of issues pertaining to accessibility, manufacturing capabilities, apheresis, accreditation, and presence of regulatory frameworks and legal oversight of these cell-based therapies.

This data gathering exercise will facilitate WBMT’s discussions with its affiliated partner, the World Health Organization (WHO), with the intention of trying to achieve equity of access to life saving cell-based treatments, especially CAR-T, worldwide. It will also help WHO in understanding the landscape of cell therapy across different regions in terms of the crucial scientific, clinical, and regulatory components needed to achieve equity of access.

This is an entirely fact-finding survey, and all results will be handled with strict confidentiality. Individual data and responses will only be accessed by the primary investigators for this survey. All results will be presented by region/country rather than by institutions. This survey is to be filled by the program director or a designee and each institution should only be represented once. Do feel free to write more in the free-flowing text area, and for those who are unable to fill every field/question, we would also like to receive your reply. It is also important to receive survey replies from those who do not have any form of cell therapy in their hospital/centre/institution.

Participation in this survey is completely voluntary. Nonetheless, we would strongly encourage participation as we expect this survey to generate important data which could lead to further important initiatives, especially with WHO.

For any further questions, inquiries, or issues with the survey, please contact:

Mickey Koh, MD
Hildegard Greinix, MD
Mahmoud Aljurf, MD
Fazal Hussain, MD

at mail@wbmt.org or mickey.koh@stgeorges.nhs.uk

This survey should take less than 15 minutes to complete. To ensure easy access to the survey, please follow these steps:

  1. Take this survey from a laptop, and not from a phone or other type of device.
  2. Make sure you are connected to a secure and steady Wi-Fi network.
  3. Copy and paste the link to the survey in an incognito/private browser. You can open the incognito mode as follows: on your keyboard, please press Ctrl, Shift, N simultaneously (for Apple users the correct combination is Command, Shift, N). Once the incognito page has opened up, you can copy and paste the link in the field and start the survey.

Link to survey: https://uthscsa.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0plkcuqDW3bSpOC

Please submit your survey responses by August 31, 2023.