Our scientific and business teams at Viralgen have been crisscrossing the globe to get insights on our peers’ latest advances in cell and gene therapy – and to share our own. Here’s a quick rundown of what we heard during three key conferences in October:
BIOSPAIN 2025 (Barcelona)
Collaborations get serious: More than ever, biotech success is driven by connections and collaboration – and Spain and Europe's biotech industries are entering a phase where manufacturing, scale-up, and ecosystem coordination matter as much as scientific discovery.
Evolving with intent: Biotech leaders in Spain are eager to push from a heavy focus on research to commercialization of advanced therapies. The good news? Innovators in Spain are generally well positioned to translate their success from clinical to commercial phases.
Flexibility matters in regulatory: Conference participants noted that the current regulatory environment for CGT needs greater predictability, coordination, and speed – all of which points directly toward the need for a more agile regulatory framework for advanced therapies.
Meeting on the Mesa 2025 (Phoenix)
The CGT industry remains in turbulent times: But there is a bright side. As a CEO we met with noted, “When gene therapy works, it works . . . and we’re seeing it work more and more.” A concrete example: Results published just this week from a University of College London (UCL) clinical trial demonstrated that a new gene therapy, AMT-130, can slow Huntington's disease progression by 75%.
Investment is challenging: The CGT industry isn’t immune from the financing headwinds buffeting all of biopharma. Yet some promising projects are still getting private Series A-D funding, and ARPA-H’s new THRIVE and GIVE initiatives (announced in late September) are providing federal funding for programs pursuing custom gene editing.
We’re quickly moving from “the general” into “the specific”: The industry is deep diving into real discussions around data, cost, and the impact of great CGT science (in fact, some of our favorite discussions at Mesa centered on how we can do better – and do more – with emerging technologies in specific ways).
ESGCT 2025 (Seville)
“Personalization” and “precision” remain key watchwords: The development of capsids with targeted tropism and immune evasion will enable more personalized and effective therapies, especially for CNS, muscle, retina, and hard-to-target organs.
Redosing may hold keys to expanded access: Strategies for AAV redosing and immune evasion are critical to expand both patient eligibility and the clinical impact of CGTs.
Safety and monitoring remain at the top: Patient safety is still the thing: Deep analysis of integration, immunogenicity, and genotoxicity remain a critical priority for clinical consolidation of AAV therapies.
Taking scalable manufacturing further: Adoption of synthetic DNA, intensified bioprocesses, and automated platforms are becoming more and more essential to reduce costs and accelerate patient access.
Every conference we attend expands our collective knowledge at Viralgen and delivers a jolt of inspiration that we carry back to our teams. So we’ll look forward to connecting with you in early 2026 at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference and at Advanced Therapies Week.