To enter the site of Ulis (Essonne) of the Swiss laboratory Novartis, you must be equipped like a cosmonaut.
The environment, where 290 biologists and technicians are busy, looks more like that of a laboratory than of a conventional factory.
And for good reason.
The treatments are tailor-made here, from the patients' own cells, to treat cases of lymphoma or acute leukemia (blood cancers) as a last resort after several chemotherapies.
If successful, the result is spectacular.
With just one injection, patients sentenced to death were cured.
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These cell therapies are called "CAR-T" after the name of T cells (white blood cells called lymphocytes).
The production of the first treatments started last August on this site, acquired last year by Novartis.
50 million euros have been invested to increase its production capacity.
139 patients will have been treated by the end of the year with the CAR-T manufactured
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