The Council of Government was informed of Málaga Regional University Hospital’s (HURM) purchase of two CAR-T therapy medicines, costing more than €435,000, to treat two patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia for whom there are currently no therapeutic alternatives with a reasonable level of efficacy.
The hospital acquired the advanced therapy medicine CAR-T ARI-0001, which is manufactured on a non-industrial basis and authorised by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices, for a patient with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. A healthcare professional from the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) works with advanced CAR-T therapies at Reina Sofía University Hospital in Córdoba. ARI-0001 combines cell therapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy. It is designed as a personalised “living medicine”, made from the patient’s own immune cells to directly fight certain types of blood cancer.
The Málaga Regional Hospital also contracted the supply of tisagenlecleucel, marketed as Kymriah, for a paediatric patient. This advanced gene and immune-cell therapy is individually manufactured for each patient and is a CAR-T treatment. It is prepared from the patient’s blood: white blood cells are separated and collected in the hospital’s Apheresis Department. The cells are then sent to a specialist centre for genetic engineering so they can recognise and destroy cancer cells. The modified cells form the medicine, which is returned to the hospital for administration to the patient by infusion.