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ARTICLE | Company News

Novartis, University of Pennsylvania deal

August 13, 2012 7:00 AM UTC

The university granted Novartis exclusive, worldwide rights to develop and commercialize chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapies for cancer. CAR-based immunotherapies are autologous T cells loaded with a lentiviral vector expressing a CAR, which consists of a cancer antigen-binding domain linked to CD3-zeta/CD137 immunostimulatory domains. Novartis plans to begin a Phase II trial next quarter of CART-19 in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The antigen-binding domain of CART-19 targets CD19, which is expressed on malignant B cells and B cell precursors.

In 2011, University of Pennsylvania researchers published data in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that CART-19-based immunotherapy led to complete remission at three weeks in a single patient with refractory CLL. ...