Pfizer to promote two Novartis COPD drugs

UK chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients will be cheered by the news that Pfizer has signed a deal to promote two new drugs developed by Novartis.

The therapies in question are Seebri (glycopyrronium) and Ultibro (indacaterol/glycopyrronium) delivered through Novartis’ Breezhaler device. While the former has been available in the UK market since November 2012, Ultibro, which has a European licence, has not yet been launched.

Pfizer says it plans to make Ultibro available in the UK in due course, where there are approximately three million COPD sufferers. Novartis will continue to be responsible for the manufacture, sales and distribution of both medicines, in addition to regulatory, pharmacovigilance and medical information commitments. 

Fred Guerard, general manager of Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK, said “we are confident that together with the resources and expertise of Pfizer…we will help maximise access and availability of these important medicines for COPD patients”. He added that the firm will focus its resources on “equally important disease areas with high patient need such as oncology, wet age-related macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis and severe asthma, and on our pipeline products in areas such as heart failure and psoriasis”.

Jonathan Emms, Pfizer UK’s managing director, added that the deal “is good news for UK patients, as well as for both organisations”.

AbbVie links up with Google for $1.5 billion aging project

AbbVie and Google’s new life sciences unit Calico are putting in at least $250 million each to collaborate on drugs for age-related diseases, helping the latter “establish a world-class R&D facility” in San Francisco.

Each partner may contribute an additional $500 million to the collaboration which will look at areas such as neurodegeneration and cancer.  Calico will be responsible for research and early development during the first five years and advance projects through Phase IIa for a ten-year period, with the support of AbbVie.

Calico, which was set up a year and has former Genentech heavyweights Art Levinson and Hal Barron at the helm, said it expects to “begin filling critical positions immediately” and establish “a substantial team of scientists and research staff” in the San Francisco Bay Area. R&D chief Barron  said “we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the many outstanding scientists at AbbVie to ensure that the important science at Calico is advanced quickly”.

AbbVie chief executive Richard Gonzalez said the collaboration “demonstrates our commitment to exploring new areas of medicine and innovative approaches to drug discovery and development “. He expressed his pleasure to be “working with such outstanding scientists as Art Levinson, Hal Barron and their team.  The potential to help improve patients' lives with new therapies is enormous”.

Google is becoming an increasingly important player in healthcare.  As well as Google Glass, which is being investigated in a number of areas, including Parkinson’s, this summer saw a deal in the USA looking at autism and a smart contact lens pact inked with Novartis.

The announcement of the deal ended a busy day for AbbVie which has bagged rights to Infinity Pharmaceuticals’ blood cancer drug duvelisib in a deal that could be worth over $800 million (see link).