Why public access to a life-changing cancer treatment is ‘on a knife edge’

Tuesday, 10 February 2026

A revolutionary cancer treatment developed in Wellington has put patients with only months to live into long-term remission, and could be ready for the public system by 2027. In a special series, senior reporter Nicholas Jones reports on the breakthrough, and what hurdles remain. This is part 3 - the Christchurch biotech with grand ambitions.

A game-changing cancer treatment could be available in the New Zealand health system as early as next year, experts say - but only if health officials approve special support.

BioOra Limited, a biotech company partly owned by the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, is gearing up to quickly manufacture a cancer treatment called CAR T-cell therapy for either public or private healthcare systems, once a trial run by the institute finishes.

That would be a lifeline for desperate patients currently paying big money for treatment in countries like China.

The company - which has grand ambitions to become “the Rocket Lab of immunotherapy” - is building a high-tech manufacturing facility in Christchurch, which will use an automated system to produce the therapy at scale, precisely and free of the risk of contamination.

However, its managing director John Robson is worried the public system will be too slow to act - costing lives and also threatening to stall the fledgling company’s momentum.

“We're kind of on this knife edge of, will they go fast enough for us? … quarter 1 of 2027 is a distinct possibility for public access, but it has to dovetail with a funding stream.”

If that lags then the treatment could be provided in the private system instead, Robson says, with talks progressing with one interested provider.

What is the treatment?

CAR T-cell therapy involves the collection of a patient’s immune cells, which are then genetically modified to recognise and kill their cancer, multiplied and then infused back into the patient’s blood.

The therapy has become a standard of care for certain blood cancers overseas, including Australia, but isn’t available privately or publicly here.

The Malaghan Iinstitute is aiming to change that. It has designed its own CAR T which in a phase 1 clinical trial produced strong results, with just over half of lymphoma patients - who had run out of other treatments and were extremely sick - cleared of cancer within months of treatment.

There were also much lower rates of serious side effects than leading commercial CAR T-cell therapies offered overseas. This means the homespun CAR T will likely be able to be given as an outpatient model - slashing the overall per patient cost.

Phase 2 of the trial aims to enrol its final patient with large B-cell lymphoma around October, with final results available after that for Medsafe approval.

BioOra is a spin-out company that was incubated at the Malaghan, to help take CAR T-cell therapy beyond the trial stage. It is currently making the CAR T for the trials from Wellington, but is raising tens of millions of dollars from private investors to build its new bespoke base in Christchurch.

The final designs and a lease on a St Asaph St building have been signed off, and early building work for the full commercial-grade GMP facility is underway.

GMP (good manufacturing practice) is an international standard set out by the World Health Organisation, which aims to make manufacturing medicines as safe as possible, and encompasses cleanliness, airflow and consistency.

“Our expectation is that that site is certified and operational at the very end of 2026, so that synchronizes with the end of the trial. It's about 45 to 50 jobs in Christchurch that we will be bringing into that site,” Robson says.

The aim is to manufacture the engineered cells for 160 patients in the first year of operations, then more than 300 in year 2.

“You don't just turn it on. We'll have to hire people and train people,” Robson says.

When could the public have access?

Timing that expensive scaling-up with demand for the therapy will be critical for the company, which is half owned by private investment firm Bridgewest Ventures and formed in 2021 with support from Callaghan Innovation, a government agency.

Information from the ongoing clinical trial will be sent to Medsafe in stages throughout the year, and the regulator will take three to six months to approve the therapy, or lodge objections.

Malaghan wouldn’t discuss results of the phase 2 trial, but Robson says, so far, “everything is on par with phase 1 … but it is patient-by-patient data that we get that moves the needle”.

There is a regulatory mechanism that means CAR T could be offered privately before Medsafe approval, Robson says, and BioOra is talking with an interested private health provider.

To get it into the public system around the same time would require special funding from the Government, Robson says. That could provide access until a more permanent funding arrangement, probably through Health NZ.

Robson would not be drawn on how much the per patient cost could be, but says it will be much lower than the $1m in Australia and the US, and not “massively different” to the roughly $200,000 charged in other markets such as China, while being much safer.

“The price becomes secondary to, ‘Will I be in ICU, and is my life at risk?’ … The global story for us is that this is a safer immunotherapy than anything else that's currently approved.”

BioOra will return a large proportion of profits to Malaghan to research and develop further CAR Ts and immunotherapies. It also has its own research team.

Future therapies could treat a wide range of conditions, Robson says, including childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, other blood and solid tumour cancers, and autoimmune diseases.

“Our goal is to be able to bring as many assets as effectively as possible into our manufacturing sites, off the back of the success of this one. This first asset really is a bootstrap for capability.

“The sovereign capability to manufacture immunotherapy is a game changer, because these therapies will challenge disease by disease by disease over the next five to 10 years. And if you can’t make it, then you are going to be buying it.”

Robson says BioOra has ambitions to become a global powerhouse of immunotherapy, with people travelling here for treatment.

“The more doses you make, the cheaper your average dose will be. So you would underwrite your country's sovereign cost through medical tourism.

“Our goal - and this is Malaghan’s stated goal as well - is to have the lowest possible price point for public access. If we can do that through an underwrite with foreigners paying more, then that’s the goal.”

Examining how to tap into the Australian market is a particular focus for Sofie Parker, head of patient access for BioOra and who previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry there.

CAR T-cell therapy is already in the Australian public and private systems, she says, but once T cells are taken from patients’ blood they must be sent to labs in the United States or Europe.

“To ship cells all that way, there and back, for these products adds so much time for patients. And these are patients who can't just wait around - there are many patients who die in that time or have poorer outcomes as a result.”

BioOra is investigating possibly establishing a manufacturing facility in Australia.

The not-for-profit Malaghan Institute has this week launched a campaign to raise funds to cover the cost of the phase 2 trial, which will top $17m.

This is separate from the funding used by BioOra, which has been raised by private investors. A further $15m was raised in a capital funding round last year, with the next round aiming to raise $30-45m. Robson recently returned from pitching for investment in the US.

In terms of securing funding for public access here, Robson says doing so will save the country millions in health and productivity costs.

The upfront cost is relatively high, he says, but it is a one-off treatment, compared to years of hospital interactions and expensive and dangerous interventions like stem-cell transplants and chemotherapy.

“If you have a 20 or 30-year-old that's treated and they effectively go down this curative pathway, then their benefit and their input to New Zealand is huge, because they carry on working and they carry on being productive.

“The savings are significant … the question is, how quickly can you prove it and make a decision for compassionate access for a therapy? Our case would be that it would be abhorrent for it not to be immediately after the trial.”

Health NZ referred questions to the Cancer Control Agency, Te Aho o Te Kahu, which is part of the Ministry of Health and leading the official response to CAR T-cell therapy, which includes the ministry, HNZ, Pharmac, Medsafe, and the Blood Service.

“This work will enable a streamlined approach for the agencies to identify the regulatory, health technology assessment and operational implications of technologies such as CAR-T cells, and will include identifying the impact on health services and associated requirements,” the agency’s acting chief executive Nicola Hill said.

New legislation, the Medical Products Bill, will be introduced this year and allow “flexible and risk‑proportionate approval pathways” for treatments like CAR T-cell therapy, Hill said. However, the go-live date will be late 2030.