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Novartis reshapes research, closes some Swiss, Chinese units

By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis is closing some of its research operations in Switzerland and China and cutting 175 jobs, part of the Swiss drug maker's effort to centralize control over its drug discovery programs and contain costs. Novartis, which employs 120,000 globally, is also relocating its tropical disease research arm from Singapore to California. The Basel-based company is consolidating research oversight within its Swiss headquarters and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) near Boston, now headed by Jay Bradner.

Novartis drug Zykadia gets positive trial results

ZURICH (Reuters) – Novartis cancer drug Zykadia showed positive results in a phase III clinical trial in treating patients with a form of lung cancer, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday. Zykadia, whose generic name is ceritinib, displayed significant improvement in progression-free survival compared to standard chemotherapy in previously untreated patients with advanced anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive non-small cell lung cancer, it said. …

Novartis and Xencor enter into bispecific antibody agreement

Novartis has received rights with Xencor to develop bispecific antibodies for treating cancer. “Under the terms of the agreement, Xencor is receiving a $150 million upfront payment from Novartis and the two companies will equally share the cost to jointly develop two Xencor antibodies targeting the CD3 domain,” Novartis said. Novartis would additionally receive rights to develop and commercialize four further bispecific antibodies and to use Xencor's antibody technology in up to 10 additional molecules, the companies said.

UK cost agency endorses Novartis heart drug for some patients

Novartis's big new drug hope Entresto has been recommended for use in some patients with heart failure by Britain's cost agency NICE, which said on Friday it believed the treatment was a cost-effective option. Entresto has a list price of 1,194 pounds ($1,809) a year in Britain, or less than half the price of $4,560 charged by Novartis in the United States. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said Entresto was suitable for a subset of heart failure patients whose hearts were particularly poor at pumping blood.

Pfizer, Novartis say meningitis vaccine scope too narrow

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee on Thursday recommended meningitis B vaccines for people at high risk aged 10 to 25, a population that Pfizer Inc and Novartis criticized as too narrow. Pfizer’s Trumenba, like Novartis’ new vaccine Bexsero, recently won U.S. marketing approval to treat the “B” strain of the deadly bacterium in that age group.