- Novartis (NYSE:NVS) is off a fraction premarket on the heels of the news that it has disbanded its internal cell and gene therapy unit. The company will redeploy ~280 of the 400 employees in the group to other positions in the company while 120 will be let go. The company believes that a dedicated unit no longer makes sense.
- In a statement, it says, "We have made the decision to re-integrate activities conducted by the Cell & Gene Therapies Unit into the larger Novartis organization, as part of a natural evolution of our internal organizational design. An isolated unit worked well under our prior Pharma Division structure, but with a new integrated development model, we can efficiently advance our work on CAR-T as part of our focus in immuno-oncology by reintegrating the functions."
- The move has surprised the CAR-T "industry" since Novartis had established itself as one of the leaders in the much-hyped field, along with Juno Therapeutics (NASDAQ:JUNO) and Kite Pharma (NASDAQ:KITE). In a recent letter to shareholders, CEO Joe Jimenez cited CAR-Ts as a key part of its oncology strategy.
- The action will not affect the company's support of the Novartis-Penn Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics, unveiled in February on Penn Medicine's campus. Novartis' seed investment of $20M helped build the center which will employ 100 cell therapy specialists. It entered into a global research and licensing agreement with UPenn in August 2012 to study CAR therapies. It will also not affect Novartis' plan to file a marketing application with the FDA in early 2017 seeking approval of CTL019 for the treatment of pediatric relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
- Previously: Novartis hits a home run with CAR-T therapy in ALL (Dec. 8, 2014)