Novartis and Pennsylvania collaborate on cancer research

Hannah Blake

pharmaphorum

An exclusive global collaboration has been announced between pharmaceutical company, Novartis, and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), to research, develop and commercialise targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers.

In addition, the parties will jointly establish a first-of-its-kind research and development facility on the Penn campus, called the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies (CACT). This center will specifically develop and manufacture adoptive T-cell immunotherapies under the research collaboration guided by scientists and clinicians from Novartis and Penn.

"By combining Penn's expertise on this pioneering technology with Novartis' strength in bringing innovative therapies to patients, we have the potential to transform the future of cancer treatment.”

Hervé Hoppenot, President, Novartis Oncology.

Novartis has also acquired exclusive rights to CART-19, as part of the transaction. CART-19 is a novel investigational CAR therapy, which targets a protein called CD19 that is associated with a number of B-cell malignancies, such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. It is currently being studied by Penn in a pilot clinical trial.