October 14, 2025

Get ready for some exciting health news straight from Spain! Scientists at Viralgen, a part of AskBio now owned by global pharma giant Bayer since 2020, are cooking up amazing cures using cell and gene therapies (CGT). Their target? Diseases that affect millions, like Parkinson’s disease – the star program in Bayer’s CGT pipeline – plus cancer, heart problems, and rare diseases. "Like every new field, you get your hits and misses. But I would say that the hits are meaningful. I would not say that a cell and gene remain just a promise that has not been delivered," said Gustavo Pesquin, CEO of AskBio. He also said, "the hits are limited, and you can count them, but I think it also is very clear that there is an upward curve and we will see more and more therapy here, with very significant impact." At Bayer’s annual APAC media event in San Sebastián, Spain, the fight for better health feels real and urgent. The company’s research is buzzing in the heart of San Sebastián’s technology park, where Viralgen runs the largest gene therapy factory in Europe. Ashraf Al-Ouf, head of Commercial Operations at Bayer’s Asia Pacific division, told the crowd, "One day we will be helping many patients cure their diseases. This is different. This is impactful." In fact, Bayer is leading the charge in Parkinson’s disease with both innovative cell and gene therapies. Take Irai, a brave girl who had a unique gene therapy in 2019 – the first ever of its kind! Her brain began making the vital chemicals to reconnect her body and brain. Just 20 months after surgery, Irai took her first steps again, and last winter she even went skiing. Truly inspiring! Parkinson’s is a smart choice for gene therapy, Pesquin explains: "The probability that gene therapy could create a completely breakthrough therapy is very high. It is a disease that manifests itself in the mid-50s, early 60s... we see that the therapeutic value that this can bring for the Asian countries, Australia, and New Zealand would be very high." Bayer is also pushing into oncology and other tough diseases. Jimmy Vanhove, CEO of Viralgen, shared staggering facts, "Of the approximately 7,000 identified rare diseases, only five percent have found a cure. Unfortunately, these rare diseases have affected around 400 million people worldwide. CGT will expand into cardiovascular, oncology, rare diseases and many other therapeutic areas over time." Thanks to smart buys like AskBio, BlueRock Therapeutics, and Vividion Therapeutics, Bayer’s CGT pipeline is bursting at the seams with potential. Ashraf sums it up with passion: "And this is why we do what we do in this company. And this is why I wake up every morning thinking, 'I want to help, that one day we will be helping many patients cure their diseases.'" The future looks bright, with cutting-edge science and heart-driven hope joining forces to bring real cures closer to us all.

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Tags: Bayer, Gene therapy, Cell therapy, Parkinson's disease, Viralgen, Rare diseases,