Pharmaceutical solutions provider Cencora and Gilead Sciences have formally expanded their long-term strategic partnership, which spans more than two decades. Under the terms of the updated alliance, the distribution giant Cencora will directly optimize and facilitate commercial access to Gilead’s autologous CAR-T cancer therapies, Yescarta and Tecartus. These specialty hematology assets were originally developed by Kite Pharma, Gilead’s dedicated cell therapy subsidiary.
The documented logistical infrastructure parameters, historical access barriers, and evolving competitive market landscapes include:
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Infrastructural Objectives and Operational Methodologies:
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Cencora will leverage its comprehensive specialty distribution network to bolster cell therapy availability across an expanding footprint of authorized U.S. treatment centers, actively capturing both major integrated health systems and localized community oncology practices.
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Cencora’s clinical logistics infrastructure is engineered to support a seamless operational experience across new and existing medical sites, systematically reducing structural physician barriers and alleviating administrative complexities, including order management workflows. Bringing these highly individualized, patient-derived cell treatments closer to patients’ homes addresses the severe infrastructure challenges currently limiting community-level care.
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Historical Bottlenecks in CAR-T Commercialization: Since the initial market entry of pioneering CAR-T options in 2017—specifically Gilead’s Yescarta and Novartis’ Kymriah—the clinical uptake of cell therapies has faced recurring constraints. High commercial pricing, narrow patient populations, manufacturing capacity limits, and a pronounced deficit in designated specialty treatment centers or aligned hospital infrastructure have historically throttled broad-scale access.
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Corporate Scale and Financial Metrics of Cencora: Pennsylvania-based Cencora (formerly operating under the corporate name AmeriSourceBergen) ranks as one of the “Big Three” pharmaceutical wholesale distributors in the United States, alongside Texas-based McKesson and Ohio-based Cardinal Health. For the 2025 fiscal year, Cencora reported aggregate revenues of $321 billion. The firm previously acted as the exclusive U.S. commercial distributor for Gilead’s blockbuster COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Veklury, during the 2020 pandemic response.
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Competitive Pressures and Financial Contractions:
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The network expansion is deployed as Gilead’s foundational CAR-T portfolio faces intense market erosion from next-generation competitors, including Bristol Myers Squibb’s (BMS) rival CAR-T Breyanzi, alongside newly greenlit bispecific antibodies such as AbbVie and Genmab’s Epkinly and Roche’s Columvi. This clinical competition triggered the first-ever annual sales contraction for Gilead’s cell therapy assets last year.
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In 2025, representing its eighth full year on the market, Yescarta’s global revenue declined by 5% to $1.5 billion. Parallelly, Tecartus (originally approved in 2020) logged a sharp 15% drop-off, bringing its annual sales total to $344 million.
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Conversely, BMS reported that its 2021-approved CAR-T Breyanzi captured an 82% revenue surge, closing 2025 at $1.4 billion. Sales for the bispecific antibodies Epkinly and Columvi—both authorized in 2023—reached $468 million and $165 million, respectively, over the same trailing period.
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Source: https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/deal-cencora-gilead-expands-car-t-treatment-center-network