CGT Development Is Booming, But Manufacturing Workforce Must Keep Up

Research into workforce demands in cell and gene therapy, conducted by Citeline in collaboration with the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) and performed with industry and academic subject matter experts, was prompted by an executive order issued by the Biden administration in September 2022 to launch the National Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Initiative. The order aims to coordinate the US government’s approach to advance biotechnology and biomanufacturing toward innovative solutions in multiple sectors. ARM shared the results of the qualitative and quantitative research publicly in their workforce gap analysis report, published in March 2023.

The cell and gene therapy sector has expanded tremendously, with the number of drugs in development growing nearly six-fold from 511 development-stage candidates in 2013 to just over 3,000 in 2023, according to Citeline’s Pharmaprojects. Attempting to meet the high demand for specialized skill sets to produce these advanced therapies has been challenging, with the workforce traditionally struggling to keep up and fill certain roles