Novartis enlists Harvard's help in delivering second generation I-O drugs

One of the world’s largest pharma companies has teamed up with one of the globe’s most prestigious universities and a leading cancer research unit in the race to develop second-generation immuno-oncology (I-O) drugs.

Novartis (NOVN: VX) is teaming up with scientists from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to explore the development of novel implantable and injectable biomaterial systems for delivering the Swiss pharma giant’s portfolio of cancer immunotherapies.

The licensed biomaterial systems aim to overcome barriers that have hampered traditional cancer vaccines, including their limited duration of action and lack of targeting to specific cancer cells.