The Swiss drug maker, Novartis has signed a big deal with the British company Oxford BioMedica that could garner them around USD 100 million, including a $10 million advance payment, various performance bonuses and development and bioprocessing services over the next three years for rendering the pharma giant with lentiviral vectors for its novel cell therapy referred as CTL019 and other unrevealed Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CART) yield.
In addition, the United Kingdom-based company Oxford BioMedica will also receive unrevealed incentives on prospective future sales of Novartis’s CAR-T products.
The contract forms on the association declared in October 2014 between the Oxford BioMedica group and Novartis and soon this year the marketable launch of CTL019 therapy is expected. This therapy is for the blood cancer B-cell which is acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
In the beginning, the supply deal will be for next three years, but it could be continued for further two years which is subjected to the requirements of both companies.
The chief executive officer of Oxford BioMedica’s, Mr. John Dawson stated that this deal presents the significance of our lentiviral vectors and the quality of work we have rendered to Novartis over the past few years. He further added that this new contract with Novartis will make the company’s financial statement stronger right away and will also endorse the Oxford BioMedica’s constant growth over the coming three years.
CTL019 therapy proposes a new treatment in which it is particularly fabricated for every single patient. During the procedure, T cells are drained of from blood in patient's bloodstreams and reprogrammed in the research laboratory to generate T cells which are genetically oblique to hunt the cancer cells and other B-cells conveying a specific antigen in patient's blood.
In 2012, Novartis picked up the rights to CTL019 therapy beneath a contract with the University of Pennsylvania that also yields Novartis global rights to CARTs developed in all cancer indications.