Keith Thompson talks about heading the catapult tasked with bringing cell and gene therapies to patients

Keith Thompson, the chief executive of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT), tells The Pharma Letter's Guy Martin that the launch of Islexa UK, a company aimed at bringing islet transplant therapy to thousands of diabetes patients, is evidence of the very real difference this new field of medicine can make to patients’ lives in the near future.

CGT was set up in 2012 to bridge the gap between academic research and commercialization of cell and gene therapies, and, with the support of the UK government and around 30 partners from Britain and around the world, it is at the forefront of turning some of the talk about the potential of this area of regenerative medicine, into a reality.

Mr Thompson explains: “We wrote the plan around what’s getting in the way of the development of the industry, which was characterized as not understood and too risky to attract major investment from either big pharma or venture capitalists (VCs). We looked at what we could we do to change the environment, to lower the barriers to investment."