Novartis has unveiled new data on its promising pipeline amid plans for multiple new product approvals and launches over the next two years. Many of these anticipated approvals are for potentially best-in-class medicines that would advance treatment standards for patients with hypertension, diabetes, cancer and other diseases.

Novartis highlighted progress throughout its pipeline, particularly the advance of pharmaceutical compounds to pivotal trials before regulatory submission as well as the development portfolio in the newly create vaccines and diagnostics division.

The following compounds are moving into pivotal late-stage trials: FTY720 (fingolimod) for multiple sclerosis, QAB149 (indacaterol) for COPD and asthma, AG0178 (agomelatine) for depression and ABF656 (Albuferon) for hepatitis C as well as RAD001 (everolimus) for cancer and SOM230 (pasireotide) for Cushing's disease.

"I am pleased that our sustained focus on innovation and drive to address unmet medical needs have enabled us to further strengthen our pipeline and file several new drugs for regulatory review over the past 12 months," said Dr. Daniel Vasella, chairman and CEO of Novartis.

"Over the next two years we will launch several innovative medicines and continue to invest aggressively in discovery research and development activities and complement our own skills and technologies through attractive collaborations," Dr. Vasella said.

In total, Novartis now has 138 projects in pharmaceutical clinical development. Of these, 94 projects are in confirmatory development (phase IIb, phase III or registration with regulatory authorities). A total of 50 are new molecular entities (NMEs), while 88 are life-cycle management projects involving new indications or formulations. More than 20 projects have been added to the pipeline during 2006. Key R&D areas are cardiovascular/metabolic conditions, oncology and neuroscience as well as respiratory and infectious diseases.

Novartis has completed many submissions in 2006 to regulatory authorities for new compounds as well as new indications for medicines already available to patients.

The US and EU regulatory submissions were accelerated and completed ahead of schedule in 2006 for two compounds: Tasigna (nilotinib) as a new treatment option for patients with resistance and intolerance to treatment with Gleevec/Glivec for certain forms of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and also for Aclasta/Reclast (zoledronic acid) as a once-yearly bisphosphonate infusion for women with postmenopausal osteoporosis.

US regulatory decisions are also expected for Tekturna (aliskiren), a renin inhibitor for hypertension, and Exforge (valsartan and amlodipine), a single-tablet combination of the two most prescribed hypertension medicines in their respective classes.

Awaiting European Commission approval are Exforge and Lucentis, a new treatment option for patients with the "wet" form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), after both compounds received positive recommendations in November from the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP). The Commission generally follows the recommendations of the CHMP and delivers a final decision within two to three months.

A US regulatory decision is also expected in the first half of 2007 for Galvus (vildagliptin) as a once-daily oral treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extended the review period for Galvus by three months from November 2006 after recently available clinical data were submitted to support the proposed dosing and indications as well as complement earlier data on the risk/benefit profile.


Approvals of Exforge and Tekturna would further strengthen the leadership of Novartis in offering a broad range of treatments for patients with hypertension, complementing the in-market brands Diovan and Lotrel.

High blood pressure and its consequences is the world's No. 1 killer, estimated by the American Heart Association to affect one in four adults, or around one billion people globally. Despite extensive use of current therapies, about 70 per cent of all people with high blood pressure do not reach target blood pressure levels. Many require two or more medicines to gain control.