The Swiss pharma firm has also signed licensing agreements with drug developers Palobiofarma and XOMA.
The transactions add Admune’s IL-15 agonist program, Palobiofarma’s PBF-509 adenosine receptor and Xoma’s TGF-beta inhibition programs to Novartis immuno-oncology portfolio.
Novartis will evaluate all three programs as monotherapies and in combination with therapies in its immuno-oncology and targeted therapy portfolios.
Novartis Institutes president for bioMedical research Mark Fishman said: "The first wave of immuno-oncology therapies has demonstrated the impact this approach can have in treating certain types of tumors.
"To realize its full potential requires exploration of the complex system of biological pathways in the tumor microenvironment with agents that can stimulate the immune system to attack a wider variety of tumors."
IL-15 therapies have been demonstrated to activate CD8+, CD4+ memory T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells in pre-clinical studies. The cells play an important role in stimulating the immune system.
Palobiofarma said its licensing agreement with Novartis will give the Swiss firm exclusive worldwide rights to develop, manufacture and market its adenosine-based cancer immunotherapies.
Novartis will get access to various adenosine-related patents from Palobiofarma associated to the role of adenosine in immunotherapy.
Spain-based Palobiofarma focuses on the discovery and development of new medicines based on the modulation of the adenosine pathways.
Image: Novartis headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. Photo: courtesy of –Andrew- from Flickr.