New partnership launches marketplace to revitalize deprioritized cell and gene therapies

New partnership launches marketplace to revitalize deprioritized cell and gene therapies

Partnership to advance rare therapies

The American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the leading professional organization advancing cell and gene therapies (CGTs), and the Orphan Therapeutics Accelerator (OTXL), a nonprofit biotechnology company focused on completing development and access to blocked treatments for rare diseases, today announced a partnership to form CGTxchange, a joint venture. This will act as a clearinghouse and marketplace for lower priority CGTs.

What are Cell and Gene Therapies (CGTs)?

Cell and gene therapies are innovative treatment approaches that use either cells or genes to treat or cure diseases. These therapies often offer new hope for patients whose diseases are difficult to treat with conventional methods.

The new joint venture will address a growing and pressing challenge in the field of CGTs: political and economic changes in recent years have resulted in biopharma sponsors ceasing development of hundreds of CGTs that are no longer considered commercially viable. This includes many therapies that offered clear benefits for patients in clinical studies.

CGTxchange leverages the organizations' combined capabilities in unprecedented ways to attract a broad range of potential partners and funders who can efficiently identify, evaluate, fund, develop and provide sustainable, reliable and scalable access to potentially transformative CGTs for ultra-rare diseases.

"At ASGCT, we have observed that many cell and gene therapies are being shelved not because they are not clinically sound, but because of the challenges of commercializing these therapies once approved. In partnership with OTXL, we are creating an entirely new path to ensure that these CGTs get to organizations - be they companies, nonprofits or academic institutions - that are ready to address the challenges of development and commercialization so that patients can ultimately benefit."

David Barrett, CEO of ASGCT

OTXL's AI-powered platform allows CGT resources and related information to be entered and analyzed into a secure, searchable database. This enables the creation of lists and profiles of discontinued therapies and provides risk-based assessments. From there, listed assets can be matched with potential investors or partners in the marketplace, increasing the possibility of securing funding and new clinical sponsors.

“Typical venture capital and biopharmaceutical return expectations are well in excess of what most ultra-rare disease CGTs can deliver given recent political and market changes,” said Craig Martin, CEO of OTXL. "However, many of these shelved therapies can still provide significant returns for the right partners, as well as tremendous benefits for patients. This partnership allows us to present high-quality, clinical CGT programs to investors and organizations whose missions, timelines and goals align with what these therapies can achieve."

Through the partnership, ASGCT will convene and engage its extensive network of CGT leaders, experts, donors and investors and help establish CGTxchange as the leading solution for currently 'preliminarily unsustainable' CGT programs. OTXL will develop the clearinghouse and marketplace platform and contribute resources from its AI-powered infrastructure and partner network to further build, adapt and scale the platform for adoption and use by the CGT community.

ASGCT and OTXL will initiate development of CGTxchange in early 2026, with a planned launch and implementation mid-year.

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