The rising prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and various rare diseases is pushing up the demand for gene therapy across the world. This is because gene therapies can treat various rare diseases, especially the ones that are caused because of genetics. For example, cancer-targeting therapies do not require long-term transgene expression. According to the American Cancer Society, in the U.S., the incidence of new cancer cases increased from 1,685,210 to 1,762,450 from 2016 to 2019.
Similarly, the country witnessed a sharp rise in cancer mortality, from 595,690 to 606,880 from 2016 to 2019. This caused a huge upswing in the popularity of gene therapy in the country. At present, the advancement of the gene therapy industry is being affected by the high production costs, long lead times, high capital demands, and low production volumes. This is boosting the demand for automation in manufacturing operations, which helps companies overcome these constraints.
There are mainly two types of gene therapies performed namely in vivo and ex vivo. Between the two, the popularity of the in vivo gene therapy was found to be higher in the past years. This was because this method is less complicated to perform than the ex vivo one. In the ex vivo technique, the cells are required to be first taken out of the body and then artificially manipulated before put back inside the body.
Because of the above-mentioned reason, the in vivo approach was usually preferred over the ex vivo one. Globally, the gene therapy market is predicted to demonstrate the highest growth rate in Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the forthcoming years, mainly because of the availability of affordable labor, the surging activities of leading gene therapy organizations, and the emergence of several group investors in the region. Additionally, many regional countries are enacting policies for regulating the approval processes of various gene therapy products.
Hence, it can be said with surety that the demand for gene therapy would skyrocket around the world in the upcoming years, mainly because of the growing prevalence of cancer and various other chronic diseases and rare medical conditions and the soaring research and development (R&D) activities being conducted in gene therapy across the world.