Novartis AG (NOVN) has a promising therapy for cancer. Its just not sure how to get it to patients easily.

The treatment is so potent that it cleared malignant cells in about 90 percent of patients facing almost certain death from the most common form of cancer in children.

The approach involves taking T cells, part of the bodys immune system, from the blood and engineering them to identify proteins on cancer cells. When returned to the patients bloodstream, the revamped T cells seek and destroy cancer cells. Its so specific that a single mistake can mean death for a patient, and so turbo-charged that Novartis plans to set up a network of hospitals versed in treating the spiking fever, chills and flu-like symptoms that may come as side effects.

The question is really if this is the right way to go at immunotherapy, a burgeoning field of medicine that empowers the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, Michael Leuchten, an analyst at Barclays Plc in London, said in an interview.

Cancer cells can use proteins on their surfaces as biological cloaks of invisibility to elude detection by the immune-system cells policing the body. Immunotherapies include checkpoint agents, drugs that strip away such disguises and expose cancer cells to attack; products such as Dendreon Corp. (DNDN)s Provenge, which combines a patients immune cells with vaccine components in an infusion; and so-called biconjugated antibodies that help immune cells anchor themselves to cancerous ones.

The total market may amount to a $35 billion watershed for cancer drugs, according to Andrew Baum, a pharmaceutical analyst for Citigroup Inc. in London. Baum sees Roche Holding AG (ROG) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMS), based in New York, as the fields leaders. Roche -- like Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland -- is developing an infused immunotherapy which blocks a protein that prevents the immune system from attacking cancer cells. Bristol-Myers sells the drug Yervoy, which helps the immune system fight melanoma.

Unlike those therapies, Novartiss CTL019 isnt as easy to produce and transport. For the researchers and the company, the results are worth the effort. If they find a way to deliver the treatment to the masses, CTL019, also known as CART-19, has the potential to generate $10 billion a year if approved to treat multiple forms of cancer, according to Baum.

CART-19 gives us a huge move into immunotherapy, a first-mover advantage, Chief Executive Officer Joe Jimenez said during a conference this year.

Nineteen out of 22 children who had exhausted all drug treatment and bone-marrow transplant options for acute lymphoblastic leukemia went into remission after receiving the therapy, also known as CART-19, according to data presented this month at the American Society of Hematology meeting in New Orleans. Five patients later relapsed, including one whose new tumor cells produced a protein that enabled them to elude the souped-up T cells.

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a much larger market, the therapy provoked a response in 47 percent of patients, with half of those patients experiencing a complete remission.

Originally posted here:
Novartis Needs Special Delivery for Potent Cell Therapy

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