Geneva:
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis has signed a licensing deal increasing access to vital leukemia treatment, a UN-backed public health organization said Thursday, marking the first-ever such agreement for a cancer drug.
The deal gives selected manufacturers the opportunity to develop, manufacture and supply generic versions of nilotinib, a twice-daily oral drug used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
“Access to quality cancer drugs is a critical part of the global health response to the cancer burden,” said Charles Gore, head of the Medicines Patent Pool, the United Nations-backed public health organization working to improve access to life-saving drugs in poorer countries. .
While the remaining patent period for nilotinib was “relatively short,” he said the license agreement “sets a vital precedent that I hope other companies will follow,” Gore said in a statement.
Lutz Hegemann, Novartis’ president of Global Health and Sustainability, said the company is “proud to be pioneering MPP with this new licensing model.”
The drug is listed on the World Health Organization’s list of essential drugs for the treatment of adults and children over one year of age who suffer from CML.
Zeba Aziz, a medical oncologist at Hameed Latif Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, said nilotinib offers an alternative for people who are resistant or intolerant to imatinib, the first-line treatment for CML — about 20 percent of those who contract the disease.
“I am pleased that more people in (low- and middle-income countries) will have access to this essential cancer drug,” she said in the statement.
The license covers seven middle-income countries: Egypt, Guatemala, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tunisia, where patents on the product are pending or in effect, MPP said.
The Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition welcomed the deal.
“This is a first for cancer treatment anywhere and shows that the combined efforts of the private and public sectors can pave the way to help save millions of lives,” said ATOM co-chair Anil D-Cruz in a separate statement. .
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)