Penn and Novartis Form Alliance to Expand Use of Personalized T Cell Therapy for Cancer Patients
PHILADELPHIA — In an alliance aimed at bringing a new, personalized immunotherapy approach to patients with a wide variety of cancers, the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis announced today an exclusive global research and licensing agreement to further study and commercialize novel cellular immunotherapies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies. The agreement, which follows a Penn research team's 2011 publication of breakthrough results in several chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients treated with this personalized immunotherapy technique, paves the way for pivotal studies that have the potential to expand the use of CAR therapies for additional cancers.
The new alliance represents a marquee achievement in Penn's commitment to translational science aimed at expediting the process of bringing novel therapies to patients. Together, Penn and Novartis will build a first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies (CACT) on the Penn campus in Philadelphia -- a venture which will bring full circle the 1960 discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome, the first description of a chromosome abnormality that causes cancer. The center will be devoted to the discovery, development and manufacturing of adoptive T cell immunotherapies through a joint research and development program led by scientists and clinicians from Penn, Novartis, and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.
"Penn's intellectual resources, combined with a pharmaceutical industry leader like Novartis, offer a powerful symbiotic relationship in our mutual goal of finding more effective treatments for cancer," said J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, dean of the Perelman School of the Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and executive vice president for the Health System. "With our shared commitment to rapidly advancing new therapies and cures, this new alliance will provide the support for the essential clinical trials with engineered T cells, which could open doors for use of promising treatment options for many cancer patients who have reached the end of currently available treatments."
Under the terms of the agreement, Penn grants Novartis an exclusive worldwide license to the technologies used in an ongoing trial of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) as well as future CAR-based therapies developed through the collaboration. Novartis will invest in the establishment of the CACT and future research of the technology. Additional milestone and royalty payments to Penn are also part of the agreement.
The complete release is at http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/novartis/.
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