Novartis will demonstrate the strength of its research programme and portfolio at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting. Presentations will highlight data across leukemias, lymphomas and myelomas as well as supportive care, including key findings in rare and difficult-to-treat patient populations, in addition to personalized cell therapies. The ASH annual meeting will be held from December 5-8 in Orlando, Florida.
"We pride ourselves in our drive for new science and innovation, and look forward to bringing this promise to life at ASH through the results of our latest hematology research," said Bruno Strigini, president, Novartis Oncology. "We will be presenting encouraging overall survival data for both investigational and approved products, underscoring our commitment to improve and extend people's lives."
A key focus in hematology for Novartis is developing therapies for rare and difficult-to-treat patient populations. The acute myeloid leukemia (AML) community in particular is in need of new treatment options as the general therapeutic strategy has remained unchanged for more than 25 years. Further, about one-third of AML patients harbor a FLT3 mutation, which is associated with poorer prognoses than in those without the mutation. To this end, key data on PKC412 (midostaurin) from the two studies will be presented.
Novartis and the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine (Penn) have an exclusive global collaboration to research, develop and commercialise chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for the investigational treatment of cancers. New data on investigational CART therapy CTL019, as well as cell processing technology will be presented at ASH.
Novartis will share new research for pipeline compound ABL001, a small molecule designed to inhibit BCR-ABL. ABL001 is different from Glivec (imatinib) and Tasigna (nilotinib) as it binds to a unique region of BCR-ABL, forcing a conformational change that disables the protein's active site. As part of Novartis' ongoing commitment to chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) research, ABL001 represents the company's evolving science and is being investigated in phase I trials: ABL001, a Potent, Allosteric Inhibitor of BCR-ABL, Exhibits Safety and Promising Single- Agent Activity in aPhase I Study of Patients with CML with Failure of Prior TKI Therapy.
Novartis will also be presenting safety and efficacy data, including long-term studies, at ASH from its approved hematological treatments: Jakavi (ruxolitinib), Tasigna (nilotinib), Farydak (panobinostat).
In addition, Sandoz, a Novartis company and the global leader in biosimilars, will present data from PROTECT 2, one of their pivotal phase III trials investigating use of their proposed pegfilgrastim biosimilar in patients with chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.
Because PKC412 (midostaurin), CTL019 and ABL001 are investigational compounds, the safety and efficacy profiles have not yet been fully established. Access to these investigational compounds is available only through carefully controlled and monitored clinical trials. These trials are designed to better understand the potential benefits and risks of the compound. Because of the uncertainty of clinical trials, there is no guarantee that PKC412 (midostaurin), CTL019 and ABL001 will ever be commercially available anywhere in the world.