One of the most exciting things about being involved in pharma and healthcare market research, is to witness the evolution and development of new therapies, particularly those that represent a complete paradigm shift in the way that patients can be treated, offering a hope of far better outcomes than previous standards of care. Oncology, a particular passion for HRW and our dedicated OR:BIT team (Oncology Research:Business Insights Team), is one of many such areas that stands on the brink of access to ground-breaking treatment options, such as gene therapy and personalised cancer vaccines. One prime example of this are CAR-T therapies, a consistently newsworthy topic with Novartis, Gilead and potentially Celgene, all engaged in a race to make the most of the CD19 receptors in haematological cancers and standing at the forefront of this particular wave. As market researchers, it is part of our remit to be as familiar with any and new developments within pharma, from a commercial, as well as a medically informed standpoint. As such, we believe it is pertinent, and of value to both ourselves and to our clients, to be as up-to-date with the most recent thinking as possible, to confidently stand as partners with our clients. To reflect this, our OR:BIT team were absolutely delighted to secure the time of five internationally renowned KOLs from around Europe and the US, to share their thoughts and opinions on CAR-T in the Oncology arena at our recently moderated live Q&A webinar. These five specialists were invited due to their extensive and deep knowledge in this field, having published their own papers or presented on this topic on a number of occasions over many years. The self-funded initiative took the form of a 60-minute webinar, with the KOLs exchanging opinions and answering questions, not just from our OR:BIT team, but also from a ‘live’ audience of pharma clients who had expressed an interest in the topic area and had signed up to take part. Special thanks go to Civicom, our platform provider, who adapted their system successfully to create a unique platform for an extraordinary event that had not been done in this set-up before, including enabling the ‘live’ audience to submit questions, which were immediately answered by our expert panel. We’d also like to acknowledge Medicys here, our preferred fieldwork supplier, who recruited all the live participating KOLs at their own cost. Thank you very much Medicys. The discussion provided a clear picture as to the ‘science’ behind the development of CAR-T therapy, but also included KOLs’ perspectives as to the anticipated challenges and barriers with the introduction of CAR-T into an already busy landscape, bustling with immunotherapies in particular. The insights gained from this fascinating event are going to be underpinned by the input of a sixth KOL, based in Japan, who will be providing their thoughts and opinions on what was discussed during the webinar in due course. We are looking forward to an enrichment of our already astonishing findings and gaining the perspective of yet another specialist in this area. If you want to learn more about this webinar and our findings, please get in touch with our OR:BIT team today. By Kirsty Page Apply Now!