Novartis expands immuno-oncology portfolio with bunch of acquisitions

Swiss pharma major Novartis (NOVN: VX) this morning announced that it is broadening its portfolio of cancer immunotherapies with the acquisition of Admune Therapeutics and licensing agreements with Palobiofarma and XOMA Corp (Nasdaq: XOMA).

Financial terms of the Admune, a USA-based clinical-stage company, transaction were not revealed. However, Spanish biotech firm Palobiofarma separately revealed that it had entered into a $15 million licensing agreement with Novartis. Shares of Novartis, now the world’s largest pharma company, edged down 1% to 88.00 Swiss francs in early trading.

With four candidates currently in clinical trials and five more agents expected to enter the clinic by the end of 2016, Novartis has rapidly built a robust portfolio of programs focused on stimulating the body's immune system to combat cancers that includes novel checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART) technology, myeloid cell targeting agents, and STING agonists.