Cell and gene therapies have long been celebrated for their curative potential — and criticized for their staggering price tags. “Automation techniques could drive down the cost of such therapies and improve accessibility worldwide,” says Allan Bream, a bioprocess specialist at CRB Consulting Engineers in a discussion with BioProcess Insider at Advanced Therapies Week 2026 in San Diego.
Allan Bream puts the problem plainly. Therapies priced at $750,000 are out of reach for most patients globally. Automation, he argues, could push that figure down to around $50,000 — still significant, but far more insurable. More urgently, the industry needs to scale from treating dozens of patients a year to hundreds of thousands. "You really can't do that with manual processes," he said.
The solution taking shape is what Bream calls a "process in a box" — robotic systems that guide a patient's cells through selection, activation, genetic modification, and expansion with minimal human involvement. Removing people from the process reduces contamination, cuts errors, and speeds throughput.
The workforce implications are real but nuanced. Industry stakeholders prefer the term "job redefinition" over "job loss" — automation handles the tedious, technique-sensitive work, freeing operators for higher-level oversight roles. Some positions, however, won't survive the transition.
Progress is accelerating. Companies like Cytiva are developing small-scale cell-processing equipment, while Cellares recently secured $600 million to build automated smart factories and position itself as a CDMO partner from the earliest stages of drug development. Bream notes that prototype systems have already completed beta testing, with commercial deployment expected later this year.
What's striking is how openly competitors are collaborating to get there. In an industry known for secrecy, that shift may be the most significant development of all.