The Bio Report

Cell and gene therapies are among the most promising approaches to treating diseases because they carry the potential to cure chronic and progressive conditions. The problem is that the high cost of producing these therapies, which often need to be tailored to individual patients, limits access to them, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Caring Cross is seeking to change that through its nonprofit model that focuses on enabling hospitals and health systems to manufacture advanced therapies locally and deliver them in a cost-effective manner. We spoke to Boro Dropulić, co-founder of Caring Cross, about how the nonprofit is seeking to lower the cost of these therapies, how it operates, and why its initially focused on HIV and sickle cell disease.