Novartis punts a late-stage PI3K drug with a worrying safety profile to one of China’s upstart biotechs
Just months after a group of researchers warned against the further development of a worrying PI3K inhibitor project Novartis had been working on, the pharma giant licensed out the global rights to a newly active Chinese biotech.
Novartis is the latest in a long string of Big Pharma players who have decided to bow out of a troublesome PI3K development program. But instead of dropping the drug the Swiss company handed worldwide commercial rights to the late-stage buparlisib to one of China’s new upstart biotechs — raising some thorny issues about how questionable drug assets may be passed to new players for a commercial rollout.
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