Novartis
NEWS
After Abogen Biosciences’ COVID shot missed the commercial window, the big question was whether its mRNA technology could create value beyond vaccines. Novartis’ $575 million upfront commitment is the clearest external validation yet of that broader therapeutic potential.
Big Pharma companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Novartis are among those that made or planned layoffs in Q3. Those cuts could affect over 1,800 employees, with New Jersey the hardest-hit state.
Not a month after reports of three deaths in autoimmune trials for Novartis’ CAR T cell therapy ignited a debate about the use of these treatments in nonfatal diseases, Kyverna Therapeutics reported data bolstering its case to bring to market the first CAR T for an autoimmune disease.
Novartis is licensing an mRNA-based therapy designed to produce a CD3xCD19 T cell engager inside the body. Abogen Biosciences says the in vivo approach could reduce the likelihood of dangerous cytokine release.
To successfully challenge Novartis on two planned fronts, Curium will need to overcome the unique challenges posed by radiopharmaceutical supply to get products to patients and win market share.
Novartis is the current radiopharma leader with two FDA-approved therapies in Pluvicto and Lutathera.
As pharmas reshore manufacturing, they’re squaring off with each other to find the right personnel to staff up their plants. That task is challenging given the limited talent pool, difficulty filling critical roles and, in some cases, competition from data centers.
Novartis stands alongside Big Pharma peers that have similarly invested in technologies to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, including GSK, Roche and Eli Lilly.
The TREM2 stabilizer failed to show efficacy in a Phase 2 trial of patients with early-stage ALS. This development follows two late-stage trial failures reported by Novartis last week, plus the news that the pharma has paused multiple CAR T cell trials following patient deaths.
JOBS
IN THE PRESS