Oct. 20 Quick Takes: Novartis commits first cancer therapy to UN patent pool

A voluntary commitment from Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS) to throw nilotinib, an oral therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), into the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) marks an inflection point for global access to cancer therapies. It is the first cancer medicine contributed to the MPP, a UN-based agency that facilitates access to essential medicines for patients in low- and middle-income countries. Nilotinib, which is indicated for CML patients who have progressed on or are intolerant to imatinib and marketed as Tasigna, will be licensed to selected generic manufacturers for sale in seven counties — Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tunisia — where patents are pending or are in force. Novartis said it will work with the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition to provide diagnostic support that is needed to manage administration of CML therapies.

Shareholders of U.K.-based DJS Antibodies Ltd. will receive $255 million up front from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV) in a deal giving the pharma preclinical anti-LPAR1 antibody DJS-002 to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. AbbVie said the DJS team will remain intact in Oxford, U.K., and the pharma expects to use the biotech’s transmembrane-targeting HEPTAD platform to create more mAbs. DJS’s shareholders, which include Oxford Science Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LifeArc, Sedgwick Yard and Amgen Ventures, are also eligible for undisclosed milestones...