Novartis reveals ASCO plans
pharmafile | May 27, 2015 | News story | Sales and Marketing | ASCO, GSK, Novartis
Novartis’ first ASCO conference since buying GlaxoSmithKline’s oncology business will be showcasing drugs from the acquisition.
The two firms swapped assets in March, with Novartis boosting its cancer portfolio in exchange for selling GSK its vaccines business, and the Swiss company is now keen to highlight its new key drugs and investigational compounds.
“We are proud to showcase our portfolio of medicines, enhanced by the acquisition of oncology products and related assets from GSK,” says Bruno Strigini, president of Novartis Oncology.
“In addition to new data across many disease areas, we look forward to presenting the overall survival data for the combination regimen of two of the assets we acquired – Tafinlar (dabrafenib) and Mekinist (trametinib) – as these targeted therapies play a critical role for certain patients fighting metastatic melanoma.”
A trial investigating BRAF inhibitor Tafinlar and MEK inhibitor Mekinist in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will also have its results revealed at the Chicago cancer conference in the US.
Another key medicine the company is highlighting will be Afinitor (everolimus), with results being presented from trials in renal cell carcinoma and HER2+ breast cancer. Afinitor is a top-selling product for the company, but has faced pricing controversy in the UK after being rejected from NICE and delisted from the Cancer Drugs Fund – although it has since been reinstated on the list.
Novartis will also be highlighting studies of Zykadia (ceritinib) in NSCLC. Zykadia recently became the first treatment approved for patients in Europe for ALK-positive NSCLC who have previously been treated with Pfizer’s ALK inhibitor Xalkori (crizotinib).
The firm will also be discussing results from trials of several investigational compounds, including Chimeric Antigen Receptor T cell (CAR T) therapies in a variety of and several precision medicines.
Precision medicine will also be a focus for Genentech and AbbVie, who are jointly presenting data on venetoclax for treating chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients with a specific genome mutation.
Several companies are highlighting drugs from the promising area of immuno-oncology, with trial results for BMS’ Opdivio (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilumumab), AstraZeneca’s MEDI4736 and AZD9291, and Merck KGaA and Pfizer’s avelumab all on display.
ASCO 2015 is taking place from 29 May to 2 June.
George Underwood
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