Cardinal Health report highlights growing momentum to expand advanced therapies into community care settings

Research confirms advanced therapies are moving beyond inpatient hospitals, with providers increasingly supporting partnerships that bring life-changing treatments closer to patients' homes.

DUBLIN, Ohio, April 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) released its 2026 Advanced Therapies Report: Perspectives on Community Expansion, offering new insights into how the expanding advanced therapy pipeline is reshaping sites of care. Advanced therapies are innovative gene-, cell- and tissue-based treatments that target the root cause of disease by repairing, replacing or regenerating damaged cells, offering long-term benefits for many conditions. As more therapies shift to outpatient and community-based settings, the report underscores strong provider momentum to improve access, flexibility and the overall patient experience.

The report draws on perspectives from more than 160 physicians and administrators across community practices and health systems, alongside expert commentary and a patient case study illustrating the real-world impact of outpatient advanced therapy administration.

Key findings include:

• Strong provider support for expanding advanced therapy administration into outpatient and community-based settings.
• Broad agreement that partnerships between health systems and community practices are critical to ensuring safe, high-quality care.
• Significant operational, clinical and economic planning is required to establish advanced therapy programs, particularly in community settings.
• Growing opportunity to improve patient access and experience by delivering life-changing therapies closer to home.

"Advanced therapies are transforming care for patients with complex and serious diseases, often delivering outcomes that were not possible just a decade ago," said Fran Gregory, PharmD, MBA, vice president of Emerging Therapies at Cardinal Health. "As these therapies evolve, access must also expand. Our report encouragingly underscores the growing momentum to move treatment closer to patients' homes — while emphasizing the partnerships, infrastructure and planning required to do so safely and sustainably."

There are currently 61 advanced therapies approved in the U.S., with that number expected to nearly triple by 2030, according to Cardinal Health's pipeline analysis. Oncology remains the dominant therapeutic area, though innovation is accelerating across additional disease states such as neurology, rheumatology, ophthalmology and cardiology, among others. Today, most oncology advanced therapies are still administered in inpatient academic or health system settings, but providers across the ecosystem are actively working to expand care to community-based sites of care to increase patient access.

Our survey findings show broad alignment around the benefits of shifting advanced therapies into community settings and demonstrate the need for collaboration to make the shift possible.

• Nearly all health system respondents strongly agreed (54%) or agreed (43%) that partnerships between community practices and health systems are essential to ensure optimal outcomes.
• Nearly all health system respondents agreed (63%) or strongly agreed (33%) that moving advanced therapies into the community would increase health system capacity for emerging innovative treatments.

Establishing advanced therapy programs requires deliberate planning, infrastructure investment and cross‑organizational coordination. Nearly half of community respondents (48%) reported that preparing to administer advanced therapies took one to two years, reflecting the operational and clinical complexity involved. Health systems pointed to investments in technology to support care coordination, while community practices emphasized expanding specialized staff and building new workflows. Community providers also highlighted that partnership models offering after-hours triage support, clinical training and expedited referral pathways are critical enablers of safe, scalable advanced therapy delivery.

To read the full 2026 Advanced Therapies Industry Report, visit cardinalhealth.com/cellandgene.

About Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health is a distributor of pharmaceuticals and specialty products; a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products; a supplier of home-health and direct-to-patient products and services; an operator of nuclear pharmacies and manufacturing facilities; and a provider of performance and data solutions. Learn more at cardinalhealth.com and in our Newsroom.

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SOURCE Cardinal Health