Novartis in deal with Penn University to advance cancer treatments

In yet another Pharma move to link up with academia, Swiss drug major Novartis (NOVN: VX) this week announced it has entered into  an exclusive global collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to research, develop and commercialize targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers.

In addition, the parties will jointly establish a new R&D facility on the Penn campus, called the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies (CACT). Financial terms of the collaboration have not been disclosed, but according to a New York Times report, Novartis has committed to contributing $20 million to build the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies, which will be devoted to studying the new treatments, on the campus

The alliance is further confirmation of the research-based pharmaceutical industries’ enchantment with academia, which Steven Burrill, chief executive of life sciences focused financial services firm Burrill & Co, has recently said is taking funding away from traditional partnerships with the biotechnology sector (The Pharma Letter August 7).