Novartis gains rights to two oral investigational therapies for life-threatening blood disorders, cancers

Novartis has gained exclusive rights to two oral targeted investigational therapies for patients with a range of life-threatening blood disorders and cancers that currently do not have effective treatment options.

Under a licensing agreement with Incyte Corporation, Novartis will have responsibility for the future development of Incyte's investigational JAK inhibitor outside the US and for future development of an early-stage cmet inhibitor globally.

The lead compound is a Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor with the investigational name INCB18424. This oral targeted therapy is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of myelofibrosis, a life-threatening neoplastic condition with no effective medical treatment that is characterised by varying degrees of bone marrow failure, splenomegaly (enlarged spleen) and debilitating symptoms.

Novartis said, "INCB18424 has the potential of becoming a first-in-class therapeutic agent for the treatment of this and other hematologic diseases."

The second compound covered in the licensing agreement, a mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor kinase (cMET) inhibitor with the investigational name INCB28060, is entering Phase I development.

• Compounds in this class are envisioned to become effective cancer therapies through their ability to block molecular signals leading to tumor cell  angiogenesis, proliferation, survival, invasion and metastasis. Multiple cancers have shown to be dependent on activation of molecular signals by genetic  alterations of the cMET gene.
• Emerging evidence indicates that cMET inhibition may be useful in the treatment of certain cancers, including gastric and kidney cancer, and may help  to overcome resistance to some targeted therapies, such as gefitinib in non-small cell lung cancer.

"A key Novartis priority is to bring innovative medicines to patients as quickly as possible," said David Epstein, president and CEO, Novartis Oncology and Novartis Molecular Diagnostics.