Novartis shares hit by Kymriah setback

Shares in Swiss pharma company Novartis (NOVN: VX) were 1% lower by lunchtime on Tuesday following news of a setback for Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel), the first approved CAR-T cell therapy.

The Basel-based drugmaker announced an update on the Phase III BELINDA study investigating Kymriah in aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) after relapse or lack of response to first-line treatment.

"Kymriah continues to demonstrate durable responses for patients with certain advanced blood cancers in the third-line setting"This study did not meet its primary endpoint of event-free survival compared to treatment with the standard-of-care (SOC), which was salvage chemotherapy followed in responding patients by high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant.