New-T cell therapy approved for Multiple Myloma

Last week the FDA approved a new CAR T cell therapy for Multiple Myeloma - the main cancer that ALA is targeting (source).

An in depth discussion of this development can be found at 1:19:22 on last week's episode of our favourite podcast - the All In Pod.

In there, biotech expert David Freedberg explains in depth the benefits of cell therapy in treating cancers compared to traditional chemotherapy as well as a high level overview on the limitations of the technology, including the exorbitant cost as well as the reliability issues.

The cost of the therapy currently sits around US$400-450K for a “one time shot” at eliminating the cancer, however Freedberg believes that the cost of the therapy “could be reduced to US$4000” through new innovations and technology.

ALA is involved in this cutting edge space by developing an ‘off the shelf’ cell therapy to mitigate the cost and reliability issues of existing cell therapy treatments.

In our 2022 Investment memo the first reason “why we invested in ALA” is based on the economics of these therapies and how we think ALA’s tech could potentially be the key to reducing the costs of these therapies through an “off the shelf” solution.

Check out our 2022 ALA Investment Memo here where you can read more about why we invested and what we want to see ALA achieve in 2022.