Novartis AG (NVS: Quote) said the company and the University of Pennsylvania entered into an exclusive global collaboration to research, develop and commercialize targeted chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers. In addition, the companies will jointly set up a new research and development facility on the University of Pennsylvania campus, called the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies.
As part of the deal, Novartis acquired exclusive rights from University of Pennsylvania to CART-19, a novel investigational CAR therapy, currently being studied by University of Pennsylvania in a pilot clinical trial. CART-19 targets a protein called CD19 that is associated with a number of B-cell malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, B-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
To accelerate the discovery and development of additional therapies using CAR immunotherapy, Novartis and University of Pennsylvania will build the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.
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