Treehill Partners was invited to contribute to Cell & Gene Therapy Review’s annual predictions feature, “2026 Cell and Gene Therapy Predictions: For CGTs, This Will Be the Year Where the Rubber Meets the Road.”
The article brings together over 40 industry thought leaders from organisations including AGC Biologics, DeciBio Consulting, Dark Horse Consulting, Phacilitate, Medable, Veristat, Charles River, Terumo, and many others to assess the critical challenges and opportunities facing the cell and gene therapy sector in 2026.
Read the full article on: https://www.cellgenetherapyreview.com/3975-Featured-Articles/624038-2026-cell-and-gene-therapy-predictions/
The Industry Context
The consensus among contributors is clear: 2026 represents a decisive inflection point for cell and gene therapy. As advanced therapies transition from promising science to industrial maturity, the sector faces mounting pressure to demonstrate not just clinical efficacy, but commercial viability, manufacturing scalability, and credible paths to patient access.
Key themes across the article include the growing investor demand for de-risked, late-stage programmes; the urgency of manufacturing automation and cost reduction; the increasing role of AI in clinical development; and the shifting geography of CGT innovation, with China emerging as a major source of novel assets and partnerships.
The Reckoning for Commercial Viability
In the Investments & Funding section, Ali Pashazadeh addressed the capital landscape with characteristic directness. He noted that Treehill’s forecast from last year — predicting the continuation of CGT funding scarcity — had proved correct, and that while innovative and novel financing approaches are beginning to deliver dividends, this is only the case for those that can demonstrate properly-considered investable proposals.
Ali emphasised that the greater degree of accountability and ownership being asked of management teams and CGT service providers to ensure optimal trial design and execution will only increase in 2026. This heightened scrutiny, he suggested, may arrive in time to support companies in the pipeline seeking to go public or raise follow-on capital.
Translating Complexity into Scalable Processes
Contributing to the Scalability & Access section of the article, Max Baumann highlighted the imperative for investors to draw a sharper distinction between scientific risk and manufacturing risk when evaluating CGT assets. He noted that in an environment where AI attracts most risk capital, biotech programmes with a clear line from mechanism of action to clinical relevance will rank highest in probability of securing funding or industry partnership.
Max’s perspective underscores a core Treehill principle: that the winners in this evolving landscape will be those who can translate biological complexity into predictable, scalable processes — ushering in a new era where living medicines are manufactured with the same confidence as traditional small molecules.