Archive · 20 Sep 2025
Indian Scientist Revolutionizes Cancer Treatment with Homegrown Therapy
Imagine your body has special soldiers, called T-cells, that fight bad cells.
Alka Dwivedi created a way to train these soldiers to fight cancer cells.
This new therapy is like a personalized medicine.
They take your T-cells, teach them to recognize cancer cells, and then put them back in your body.
This new treatment, named NexCAR19, is super effective for blood cancers like leukemia and lymphoma, especially in children.
The best part?
It costs much less than the treatments from other countries.
This allows more people in India to get the treatment they need.
Indian scientist Alka Dwivedi developed a CAR-T cell therapy, NexCAR19, for cancer treatment.
The therapy was approved in late 2023, making it India's first homegrown gene therapy for cancer.
NexCAR19 is designed to be a safe, effective, and affordable version of CAR-T cell therapy.
The therapy has shown promising results, with many patients responding well and some entering remission.
The cost is significantly lower than similar treatments in Western countries due to the design and production process in India.
- Who
- Alka Dwivedi, along with a team of Indian scientists.
- What
- Developed an indigenously designed CAR-T cell therapy for cancer treatment.
- When
- Developed in 2023, the therapy was launched by the President of India.
- Where
- Developed at IIT Bombay, clinical trials at Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai.
- Why
- To make effective and affordable CAR-T cell therapy accessible to Indian patients and reduce the cost by nearly 90%.
- Scientist
- Alka Dwivedi
- Therapy Name
- NexCAR19
- Therapy Type
- CAR-T cell therapy
- Approved By
- Central Drugs Standard Control Organization
- Price Reduction
- 90% reduction compared to Western counterparts
- Initial Funding
- ₹1.76 million from Tata Trust