Novartis' AveXis expands gene therapy manufacturing capacity

Just a year after being acquired in an $8.7 billion deal by Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX), AveXis has signed an agreement to purchase an advanced biologics therapy manufacturing campus in Longmont, Colorado, USA.

This will further expanding AveXis' production capacity as it prepares to launch Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi), an investigational gene therapy awaiting global regulatory approvals for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 1 and for future gene therapy treatments in development.

The US Food and Drug Administration last December accepted a Biologics License Application from Novartis for Zolgensma for priority review and a decision is expected by May 2019. According to a recent report from data company Clarivate Analytics, Zolgensma is expected to generate sales of over $2 billion by 2013, with as much as $499 million being seen in 2019.