In February 2022 Friedberg effectively claimed that, over the next few years, hundreds of distinct cell‑based therapies that were then in late‑stage trials would win regulatory approval and come to market globally, alongside gene‑editing therapies.

Actual approval numbers fall far short of that scale:

• In the US, there were 26 FDA‑approved cell and gene therapies at the end of 2022 and 33 by the end of 2023.(hitech-health.com) A later analysis reports 43 FDA‑approved cell and gene therapies as of December 2024.(axtria.com) Even adding the new 2024–2025 approvals such as Amtagvi (lifileucel), Lenmeldy (atidarsagene autotemcel), Encelto (revakinagene taroretcel) and Zevaskyn (prademagene zamikeracel), the total number of distinct cell/gene therapies in the US by late 2025 is still well under 100.(en.wikipedia.org)
• Globally, a systematic review of US, EU and Japanese regulators found 75 authorised gene therapeutics as of April 2024.(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) A separate Citeline/ASGCT analysis counted 111 approved gene, cell or RNA therapies worldwide by mid‑2023, of which only 62 were non‑genetically modified cell therapies and 11 were gene‑modified cell therapies – roughly 73 cell‑based therapies in total, not hundreds.(pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
• A 2024 market report similarly estimates 32 globally approved gene therapies and 68 non‑genetically modified cell therapies (about 100 therapies altogether).(media.market.us)
• Forward‑looking industry assessments project that only about 60–70 cell and gene therapies will be approved globally by 2030, indicating that even by the end of the decade the cumulative number of distinct CGTs will remain in the tens, not the hundreds Friedberg implied for the mid‑2020s.(hmpgloballearningnetwork.com)

The gene‑editing part of the prediction did materialize in a limited way: CRISPR‑based and other gene‑editing therapies such as Casgevy and Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease have been approved since 2023.(hitech-health.com) But the central quantitative claim – that hundreds of cell‑based therapies in late‑stage development would actually reach the market within a few years of 2022 – has clearly not occurred and is inconsistent with both current counts and authoritative forecasts.