Reuters
Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan
- Novartis on Monday said it has 26 potential blockbuster medications in development.
- The company plans to file 14 of those within the next three years for potential approval.
- Those include treatments for everything from genetic diseases to neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, to an eye drug that could upend a $5 billion drug market, as well as treatments for cancer.
Novartis has an ambitious decade ahead of it.
The company on Monday said it had identified 26 new therapies in the works that could potentially be blockbuster drugs for the Swiss pharma giant.
That includes treatments that came out of a deal Novartis struck in April when it bought gene therapy maker AveXis for $8.7 billion. The company's treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic condition that affects muscle movement in children and is the leading genetic cause of mortality in infants.
The rundown of Novartis' pipeline comes shortly after the company cut about a fifth of its research and development programs in an attempt to narrow its focus.
Of the 26 potential blockbusters Novartis highlighted, it anticipates filing 14 with the FDA for approval within the next three years. Twelve of those will be entirely new therapies, while two are requests to treat new conditions with an existing therapy.
Blockbuster drugs are ones that a pharma company expects will generate more than $1 billion a year in sales.
The drugs Novartis listed haven't been approved yet. But by 2021, it expects that 14 could be making more than $1 billion in annual sales. The pipeline covers everything from neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, to an eye drug that could upend a $5 billion drug market, as well as treatments for cancer and asthma.
Here are the drugs Novartis expect to file by 2021
- AVXS-101 - a gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. It's anticipated to cost as much as $5 million.
- siponimod - secondary progressive multiple sclerosis
- brolucizumab - age-related macular degeneration
- Costentyx - non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis. Costentyx has already been approved to treat conditions like psoriasis.
- Entresto - heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, a heart condition. Entresto is already approved for another form of heart failure.
- INC280 - non-small cell lung cancer.
- OMB157 - relapsing multiple sclerosis
- PDR001 - metastatic melanoma
- QVM149 - Asthma
- Crizanlizumab - Sickle cell disease
- Fevipiprant - Asthma
- ABL001- chronic myelogenous leukemia
- ACZ885 - Lung cancer
- Ligelizumab - chronic spontaneous urticaria, or chronic idiopathic urticaria, a condition characterized by hives.