Novartis has gained the rights to two oral targeted investigational therapies focusing on patients with life-threatening blood disorders and cancers.
Under a licensing agreement with Incyte Corporation, Novartis will have responsibility for the future development of Incyte’s investigational JAK inhibitor outside the US and for future development of an early-stage cMet inhibitor globally.
Novartis will make upfront payments of USD 150 million and a first milestone payment of USD 60 million; following this, Incyte will be eligible for milestone payments and royalties on future sales.
“A key Novartis priority is to bring innovative medicines to patients as quickly as possible,” said David Epstein, President and CEO, Novartis Oncology and Novartis Molecular Diagnostics. “This agreement leverages these two promising investigational drugs with Novartis Oncology’s global development and commercialisation expertise and our wide range of multi-targeted approaches to cancer treatment.”
The lead compound is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor. This oral targeted therapy is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of myelofibrosis, a life-threatening neoplastic condition that currently has no effective medical treatment. It has the potential of becoming a first-in-class therapeutic agent for the treatment of this and other haematologic diseases.
The second compound covered in the deal, a mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor kinase (cMet) inhibitor, is entering Phase I development. Compounds in this class are envisioned to become effective cancer therapies through their ability to block molecular signals leading to tumor cell angiogenesis, proliferation, survival, invasion and metastasis.
Emerging evidence indicates that cMet inhibition may be useful in the treatment of certain cancers, including gastric and kidney cancer, and may help to overcome resistance to some targeted therapies, such as gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer.