Novartis gains rights to blood disorder therapies

Novartis announced this week that it has received the rights to two oral targeted investigational therapies intended for use in patients with life-threatening blood disorders and cancers.

These are INCB18424 – which is in phase III development as a first-in-class treatment for myelofibrosis ? and cMET inhibitor INCB28060, which targets tumour invasion and drug resistance in gastric, kidney and lung cancers.

An upfront payment of $150 million (90 million pounds) and an initial milestone of $60 million will be offered by Novartis as part of the procedure.

David Epstein, president and chief executive of Novartis Oncology and Novartis Molecular Diagnostics, commented: “This agreement leverages these two promising investigational drugs with Novartis Oncology’s global development and commercialisation expertise and our wide range of multi-targeted approaches to cancer treatment.”

This news comes after Novartis announced last week that that just half of its vaccine dose for H1N1 influenza could fully protect an individual from the virus.