Novaral Kymriah has been approved by Health Canada to treat two types of B-cell malignancies

CAR-T cell therapy Kymriah (Tisagenlecleucel, CTL019), developed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, was recently approved by Health Canada for two types of B-cell malignancies: (1) Children and young adults with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) aged 3-25 years; The approval marks the beginning of a new era of cancer treatment by making Kymriah the first CAR-T cell therapy approved in Canada.
Kymriah is expected to cost the Canadian health system more than $400 million over the next three years. Although the cost of providing Kymriah to young patients with ALL is expected to be only $25.6 million in the first three years, the Committee of Experts found that the cost of providing Kymriah to adult patients with lymphoma could be as high as $387.4 million due to the high prevalence of the disease.
U.S. market, Kymriah is priced at $475,000 for ALL patients and $373,000 for lymphoma patients.
Health Canada's expert committee recommended that Kymriah be made available to patients as soon as Novartic agreed to lower prices. Novarma is currently in talks with cancer treatment centres in Ontario, Canada, and after an agreement is reached, Kymriah will provide: (1) young B-ALL patients who have relapsed after receiving an allogeneic stem cell transplant (SCT) or do not conform to SCT, or who have had two or more relapses; (2) Adult patients with recurring or refractic large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL) who have failed to receive treatment with 2 or more system therapies, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), high-level B-cell lymphoma and DLBCL caused by folytic lymphoma (FL).
so far, two CAR-T cell therapies have been approved for sale, Kymriah of Novart and Yescarta of Gilead. Unlike conventional small molecules or biological therapies, it is a live T-cell therapy product. Both Kymriah and Yescarta are based on the gene modification of a patient's T-cells to express an inset antigen -CAR designed to target antigen CD19, an antigen protein expressed on the surface of a variety of blood tumor cells, including B-cell lymphoma and leukemia cells. (Bio Valley)