Perspectives from the lab

Our first blog submission from the Israeli lab! Dr. Yael Porat, TheraVitae's Research and Development Manager gives us an insight into how the laboratory staff feels about manufacturing life-saving cells.

Receiving a bag containing a patient's blood, that has been flown halfway around the world, is quite an experience for anyone here who has been in this situation, more so when you realize that to most of our patients this is their best hope of a treatment for a debilitating condition. But when the manufacturing routine kicks in, all this is put aside and what remains is concentrating on the cell manufacturing process, which we have all performed many times with a lot of dedication and a great desire to help the people who have trusted us to help make them feel better.

The cell manufacturing process has been perfected mostly due to the hard work of our R&D staff who performed trial runs for many months to ensure we produce the most beneficial cellular product for our patients. All of us here are aware of the responsibility we carry while handling patients’ cells – we always remember that we are dealing with individual people, and despite not having the privilege of meeting them we never forget that fact. This led to quite a few sleepless nights during the first clinical patients we treated, but by now we are confident in our product and its ability to help people who until now were offered no effective treatment and condemned to suffer.

Our cell product takes several days to manufacture, during which we use cutting-edge methods and always maintain the highest standards of process controls. When production ends, cell samples are examined to see they meet pre-defined release criteria and the syringes carrying the cellular product are shipped in special temperature controlled packages, to make sure they reach Thailand in optimal conditions.

Being a multinational company, we are in constant close contact with our colleagues in Thailand. Bridging the geographical, cultural and time differences takes an effort, but the TheraVitae staff in Bangkok are so dedicated, friendly and helpful we feel like a single unit, striving as one to help our patients.
Now, I’d like to remind everyone of the additional, “hidden” people involved in this project – our family members. Despite being parents, we still have had to devote a lot of time to the development of this treatment. My children sometimes complain of my spending too much time at work, so I explain them that we all collaborate in a very important mission of helping others. I also share my experiences with them and by now (although my youngest is about seven years old) they have come to know quite a bit about heart failure.

The satisfaction we get from knowing that our patients can go back to their normal lives is amazing. Moreover, thanks to this blog and the interviews on the website, we at Theravitae manufacturing lab, who lack the direct touch with our patients treated in Thailand, have the opportunity to see first hand who it is we're helping and that's when the great beneficial effect we can have on people's lives really hits home. These testimonials, which I think are the best indication for the success of our treatment, really motivate us to keep on working hard in order to help people. So I'd like to take this opportunity and thank everyone who took time to write here and on the TheraVitae and Vescell websites, and hope that together we will spread the knowledge of this safe and helpful treatment to many others who can benefit from this treatment.