Cellerys

History

2021: Novartis bought Cellerys

In early June 2021, the Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis signed an agreement to acquire Cellerys, a startup from Zurich that conducts research in the field of therapy to combat multiple sclerosis. Cellerys was founded in 2015 by multiple sclerosis researchers as a subsidiary of the University of Zurich. Novartis did not provide any financial details of the transaction.

Under the agreement, Novartis will support the development of the drug CLS12311, which is currently in phase 2, the manufacturer said in a statement. - Novartis will have the opportunity to acquire Cellerys after completing a phase 2 clinical trial in the coming years.

Novartis bought Cellerys

In 2015, Novartis for $1 billion acquired from the English pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline the rights to sell ofatumumab, which at that time was used for the treatment of cancer. In 2020, US regulators approved it for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, and now the drug is sold under the trade name Kesimpta. In 2017, the American regulator also allowed the use of the drug Gilenia (fingolimod) for the therapy of childhood recurrent multiple sclerosis, and in 2019 approved Kayendra (siponimod), another drug from Novartis, for the therapy of secondary-advanced multiple sclerosis.

In 2021, Novartis registered this targeted drug in Russia, which can be used regardless of the presence of exacerbations. This fundamentally distinguishes the drug from others that affect inflammatory activity and are shown to reduce the incidence of exacerbations. In Russia, multiple sclerosis is included in the Seven High-Cost Nosologies program, created in 2007, but Novartis drugs are not yet included.^[1]

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