Jeff Sharman, MD shares his thoughts on the value of CAR T administration in the outpatient setting especially in regard to access for patients and the multidisciplinary team involved.

Transcript

Jeff Sharman, MD: There are several values of being able to administer CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T-cell therapy in the community setting. You can give it in the outpatient setting, which can have profound access implications as it pertains to cost of therapy. Therapy administered in the outpatient setting across a multitude of cancers is less expensive than therapy administered within a hospital. There are less formulary issues. Many hospitals are reluctant to take on expensive medications or medical procedures if there are concerns regarding reimbursement. Also, geographically being able to administer this in the community may facilitate individual patients’ access, recognizing that not every patient has the means or the ability to physically relocate for a full month for their therapy to a community that they don’t already live in, whether that’s economically or socially. They are care providers or oftentimes big cities are more challenging for people who haven’t lived in big cities. There are a host of access implications that are opened up by our ability to administer this therapy in the community setting.