Novartis broadens immuno-oncology pipeline with acquisition of Admune Therapeutics and agreements with XOMA and Palobiofarma

Novartis is broadening its portfolio of cancer immunotherapies with the acquisition of Admune Therapeutics and licensing agreements with Palobiofarma and XOMA Corporation. The acquisition of Admune adds an IL-15 agonist programme currently in phase I clinical trials for metastatic cancer. The licensing agreement with Palobiofarma gives Novartis development and commercialisation rights to PBF-509, an adenosine receptor antagonist currently in phase I clinical trials for non-small cell lung cancer. The agreement with XOMA gives Novartis development and commercialisation rights to XOMA's TGF-beta antibody programmes. All three candidate molecules will be explored as monotherapies and in combination with therapies in Novartis' immuno-oncology and targeted therapy portfolios.