Heavyweight update! In the next three years, Novartis R & D pipeline will submit 60 new drug applications

Novartis recently demonstrated its industry-leading R & D pipeline assets at the R & D and investor Update Conference in London, UK, and promised to submit no less than 60 important regulatory applications for new drugs from 2019 to 2022, covering its drug, cell and gene therapy platforms Novartis pointed out that at present, there are 26 potential heavy weight new drug projects in the United States, the European Union and Japan, which have passed the concept verification stage in clinical development Among them, the top priority is the multiple sclerosis (MS) drug mayzent (siponimod), which is expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2019 It is the first and only drug in the treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) that has been proved to delay the progress of the disease Mayzent is the successor of Novartis' heavyweight MS drug, gilenya (fingolimod), which brought us $2.5 billion in sales in the first nine months of this year Currently, it is facing the threat of generic competition in Europe, but the patent protection period has been successfully extended to 2027 in the US market In MS, the antibody drug ofatumumab is ranked second, which is a strong potential competitor of ocrevizumab, Roche's fast-growing CD20 targeting drug At present, ofatumumab has been approved for the treatment of blood cancer and is marketed under the brand name Arzerra However, Novartis has designated a new R & D code omb157 for the drug, which is developed as a new generation of B-cell depletion agent The drug has a faster B-cell depletion effect and potential favorable safety features of retaining immunity At the same time, it has the convenience of subcutaneous injection once a month, which is expected to challenge Roche's ocrevus, whose global sales volume is expected to reach 2 billion US dollars this year Both mayzent and omb157 have "the potential to change clinical care standards," according to the company The potential drugs include qaw039 (fevipiprant), VEGF inhibitor brocizumab (rth258), anti-P-selectin antibody crizanlizumab (seg101) and anti-il-1 β antibody canakinumab (acz885) Pipeline of advanced treatment products: 13 are in clinical development At present, Novartis is stepping up efforts to promote the development of advanced treatment pharmaceutical products (ATMP), including cell and gene therapy 13 candidate drugs have been in clinical development, and another 9 will start human clinical in early 2019 In this field, Novartis has launched car-t cell therapy kymriah (tisagenlecleucel) for lymphoma and leukemia At the meeting, Novartis announced new projects, including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) gene therapy avxs101, which is part of Novartis's $8.7 billion acquisition of avexis and is expected to obtain regulatory approval from the United States, the European Union and Japan in the first half of 2019 In addition, the company also focuses on its radiology ligand assets, including the listed gastrointestinal neuroendocrine (GEP-NET) tumor radioligand therapy lutathera (177Lu oxodotre) and the recently acquired 177lu-psma-617 after the US $2.1 billion acquisition of endocyte, which is a potential initiative for the treatment of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) References: 1 Novartis: pipeline will generate 60 filings in three years 2 Novartis R & D update highlights industry leading development pipeline including potential blockbusters and advanced thermal platforms 3 Novartis R & D and investor update