Novartis to expand in cancer immunotherapy market

Novartis has outlined its plans to continue to expand into the growing field of cancer immunotherapy.

It will augment its recent acquisition of CoStim Pharmaceuticals to strengthen its position in a market that could be worth up to $35 billion (21 billion pounds).

Mark Fishman, Novartis' head of research, said the company's immunotherapy platform will increase. 

"I can't tell you the precise amount, but it will be a bigger part of our portfolio," he explained.

The purchase of CoStim added a number of experimental drugs to Novartis' immunotherapy portfolio, which had previously consisted solely of the CTL019 treatment, which still does not have a clear path to commercialisation.

Novartis hopes it can capitilise on CoStim's experimental drugs target, the PD-1 receptor. It is a cancer immunotherapy site that has been the focus of treatments such as Bristol-Myers Squibb's nivolumab and Merck's MK-3475 medicines.