Patent-filing research conducted by Withers & Rogers suggests that CAR T-cell therapy capability has reached a pivotal point on route to market, and first-line use of these promising treatments for various forms of cancer is nearing, although it’s still not clear how long it will take.

Withers & Rogers
The first patents related to CAR T-cell therapy were filed in 2010, and the innovation curve, which is based on the volume of global patent filings, has gone from nought to 12,452 in just 12 years (to the end of 2021 which is the last complete year of patent filing data). However, global patent filing data for 2020 and 2021 (the last two years of complete data) shows that the innovation curve is now levelling off: suggesting that a critical mass of patent applications may now have been reached.
Justin Wilson, partner and cell and gene therapy sector specialist at European intellectual property firm, Withers & Rogers, said: “This doesn’t mean that interest in CAR T-cell therapy is declining – far from it. It more likely suggests that the technological building blocks for advanced gene and cell therapy are now largely in place, and fewer speculative patents are being filed as a result. This plateauing may also indicate that mainstream application of these exciting immunotherapy treatments is nearing.
“The main barriers to use of CAR T-cell therapy as a first-line cancer treatment include the complicated production process, and the cost and scale of manufacture. Further investment is required in both areas so that these potentially life-saving treatments can be made available to more cancer patients as quickly as possible.”
The dip in patent filings in 2020 and 2021 (as shown in the innovation graph), also follows a period of industry consolidation, when big pharma was buying into the CAR T therapy opportunity. Gilead Sciences bought Kite Pharma in October 2017 to access two developmental CAR T-cell therapies; Janssen Biotech (a Johnson & Johnson company) entered a collaboration agreement with Legend Biotech in December 2017; and Bristol-Myers Squibb partnered with bluebird bio in 2018 and bought Celgene in 2019 to access two further CAR T-cell therapies. Therefore, corporate transactions at this time may have contributed to a slowdown in R&D activity.
The first CAR T-cell therapy approved for use by the NHS in September 2018 was Kymriah, which is used to treat patients with refractory acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Since then, NHS England has secured deals to expand its access to these potentially life-saving therapies and it can now offer three different therapies for six different types of cancer. Further options may be available in the near future as a total of seven CAR T-cell therapies have received approval in the US. However, these treatments are currently only available to patients as a last resort.
“CAR T therapy is the most promising breakthrough in the search for an effective cancer treatment in decades, and whilst NHS England was the first health system in Europe to secure a full access deal for it, it remains a treatment of last resort. More investment is urgently needed to accelerate the viability of these potentially life-saving personalised medicines,” added Wilson.
The research confirms that the UK is leading Europe when it comes to owning the global patent rights for this dynamic field of R&D. Data about the where patents were first filed, which is usually an indication of country of origin, shows that 5% of global patents related to CAR T-cell therapy filed to date were first filed at the UK Intellectual Patent Office (UKIPO) – 678 in total. Only the US and China filed more patents related to CAR T-cell therapy over the same period – 8,478 and 2,572 respectively.
More patents related to CAR T-cell therapy were filed at the UKIPO over the period from 2010 to date than at any other national patent office in Europe, indicating that the UK is a European leader in this field of R&D. After the UK (678), the other top-filing European nations in this field of R&D were Denmark (194) and Finland (32).
Of the top 20 organisations that own the greatest volume of patents related to CAR T-cell therapy, two are rooted in the UK – Autolus Therapeutics, which was the first non-US company to obtain an approved CAR T therapy in November 2024, and UCL Business, the tech transfer company of University College London which helped to establish Autolus Therapeutics as a spin-out in 2014.
Despite the innovation curve indicating that much of the scientific groundwork for CAR T-cell therapy is in place, Justin Wilson warns that there is much more work to do. He said:
“It is difficult to predict the timeline to market for these potentially life-saving treatments because producing a personalised medicine is more complicated that mass producing a new drug. The process of extracting cells from the patient, modifying them, expanding them and then preparing them for infusion back into the patient, will require validation and regulatory approval at every step. Expanding their use beyond just blood cancers and into solid tumours will also require significant development work.
“With the right level of investment and incentives to accelerate the route to market, the UK can build on its position as a European leader and succeed in making CAR T-cell therapy a front-line treatment for cancer patients in the UK.”