Swiss-American pharma giant Novartis announced the week that it would be joining Cancer Research UK’s DETERMINE trial, a multi-drug precision medicine trial for patients of all ages with any rare cancer type.
The trial seeks to evaluate current cancer treatments for common cancers in patients with other tumors for which the drugs are not licensed. Participants of the trial are also screened for genetic mutations that could be targeted by drugs.
Any company with targeted cancer treatments that have been licensed and would like to asses its drug in rare indications is encouraged to join the trial. Novartis is joining Roche in giving access to its oncology treatments which will be managed by the Center for Drug Development and led by the University of Manchester.
With the trial’s structure, if any treatment appears to work for patients on the trial, it can be submitted to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) for review.
When it comes to innovation in oncology, Novartis has had a special legacy, becoming the first company to bring targeted cancer therapy and CAR T-cell therapy to market. Currently, the company is focused on treatment approaches such as its radio ligand therapy and targeted protein degradation for the removal of cancer-driving proteins from cells.
