Novartis Signals Growing Ambitions for CAR-T Cancer Treatments
- Drugmaker expects CAR-T filing with regulator in early 2017
- Swiss company says it doubled investment in manufacturing
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Novartis AG is pushing ahead with one of its most ambitious cancer therapies, a treatment that the Swiss drugmaker says has blockbuster potential as it extends that technology to a wider pool of tumor-ridden patients.
Europe’s second-biggest drugmaker is planning to test its CAR-T treatments -- which involve extracting immune cells and genetically engineering them to hunt and kill cancer cells before returning them into the patient’s body -- on lethal cancers of the brain, pancreas, colon, ovary and lung. The company has also doubled its investment in manufacturing for these treatments.