{"id":15908,"date":"2026-04-15T08:26:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saludporderecho.org\/?p=15908"},"modified":"2026-04-15T08:26:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T06:26:41","slug":"cart-access-unequal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saludporderecho.org\/en\/cart-access-unequal\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced therapies move forward while access remains unequal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Advanced therapies are opening up new possibilities in the treatment<\/strong> of serious diseases, particularly in oncology. At the same time, their development is bringing familiar global health challenges<\/strong> back to the fore, related to pricing and access to medicines, technology and the knowledge required to produce them, as well as the distribution of that knowledge.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, we discussed these issues in the first session of our Advanced Therapies Series, \u201cDecoding CAR-T Access: Patents and Lessons from Global Health.\u201d The conversation helped structure a debate that still occupies limited space on the global agenda, despite its implications.<\/p>\n

This type of personalised cancer treatment is based on modifying a patient\u2019s own immune cells<\/strong> so that they can recognise and attack tumour cells, and has opened new options in cases where other therapies had not worked. At the same time, access to these therapies is heavily conditioned by their price.<\/p>\n

Available treatments range between $300,000 and $400,000 per patient<\/strong>. These figures not only limit access in lower-resource settings, but also threaten the sustainability of health systems that, in principle, are able to absorb high-cost innovations.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the problem is not only economic. As in many other areas, it is also about how innovation is organised. Research, clinical trials and patents are concentrated in a small number of countries<\/strong>, led by the United States and China. Other regions, such as Latin America and Africa, are largely absent from this ecosystem. This creates a double gap<\/strong>, limiting access to treatments while also shaping who produces knowledge and under what conditions it can be used.<\/p>\n

Intellectual property plays a critical role in this context. CAR-T therapies are protected by a dense patent landscape<\/strong> that covers everything from biological components to manufacturing processes and methods of administration. For many countries, this means navigating an environment in which developing local alternatives can be legally complex<\/strong>.<\/p>\n