WORLD'S MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2018
RANK NO.21 Novartis
Novartis
Getting any new drug to market is a moonshot, but Novartis’s
August 2017 launch of the potent new CAR-T therapy, Kymriah, was more like
landing on Mars. Kymriah, which is used to treat relapsed or resistant B-cell
acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common child cancer in the U.S., is the
first gene therapy drug ever approved by the FDA. Customized to each
individual, the treatment takes T cells from the patient, reengineers them with
a surface protein that targets tumor cells, and infuses them back into the
body. In clinical trials, the overall remission rate within three months of
treatment was 83%; many patients have passed the four-year survival mark. With its
research partners at the University of Pennsylvania, Novartis is now developing
a pipeline of CAR-T drugs for other blood cancers as well as solid tumors. “We
want to take on the toughest problems,” says CEO and former head of drug
development Vasant Narasimhan. “Our overall vision is a world where no child
has to die from B-cell cancer.”
https://www.fastcompany.com/company/novartis
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