Just the FACTs 2025 Volume 3
President’s Letter
I think we can all agree that 2025 has seen much change and uncertainty for many in our global cell therapy community and beyond. At FACT too, throughout our nearly 30 years of standards setting and accreditation, we have experienced times of change with numerous “inflection points”. These have included periods where we have launched into new waves of cellular therapy and associated offerings, such as new Standards, new technologies, and new stakeholders. Therefore, to meet the increasing needs of the transplantation and cellular therapy community, we are embarking on new activities to meet the accelerating demands for quality cellular therapy programs with new standards and accreditation processes.
To that end, I am excited to say that last week we announced the Community CAR T Working Group, which is described in more detail within this newsletter. We have also received initial accreditation applications from 48 organizations, including transplant programs, immune effector cell programs, collection facilities, processing laboratories, and cord blood banks. This represents the tremendous growth in our field to pursue safe, effective, and accessible cellular therapies worldwide. Accommodating this growth is central to the FACT mission!
Finally, also in this newsletter, our CEO, David Schmahl, who joined FACT twelve months ago, outlines his plans for positioning FACT well into the future. In these rapidly changing times, David and the entire HQ team have been working tirelessly to move FACT forward into our next 30 years! With multiple new cellular therapy products, indications, and providers, this is indeed an exciting time for FACT!
Sincerely,
Cath
Catherine Bollard, MD
FACT President
