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Novartis is betting that new treatments for cancer and immunological diseases will drive growth in the medium term above previously expected levels. The company said Thursday that sales are forecast to increase 6% a year through 2028, up from an earlier estimate of 5%, also boosted by drugs for neurological and cardiovascular conditions.Having completed the spin-off of its generics business Sandoz last year, CEO Vas Narasimhan said the focus solely on innovative medicines "has allowed us to sharpen our commercial execution." He noted that peak sales estimates for Cosentyx, Kisqali, Kesimpta, Pluvicto and Leqvio have all been increased, with the majority having US exclusivity in the 2030s or beyond.Heavily reliant on oncology"We have more than 15 submission-enabling readouts in the coming years to further bolster our growth profile," Narasimhan remarked. “Longer term, we've identified more than 30 assets in the pipeline with significant potential to rejuvenate our portfolio and support mid-single-digit growth post 2029."Bloomberg Intelligence analyst John Murphy suggested that to achieve the new sales target, Novartis will be "heavily reliant on core cancer, but also on the delivery of key datasets in 2025/26."Eyes still on US top 5Along with its internal pipeline, Novartis said that "value-creating bolt-ons" are an important element of its capital allocation policy, although Narasimhan said large outlays are unlikely. "Most of our activity…has been in the $5 billion range. I don't see that materially changing."While Novartis also has ambitions to become one of the top five pharmaceutical firms in the US, Narasimhan is eschewing deals to reach that point. "We won't do M&A just to get into the top five," he said, with the "five year plus project" to reach this goal still needing "quite some work."

Through a new deal, Novartis has added a handful of experimental gene therapies to its neuroscience research pipeline.Novartis is betting the gene therapy technologies developed by Kate Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup founded four years ago, can lead to treatments for an array of neuromuscular diseases. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant said Thursday it has acquired Kate, in a transaction that could ultimately be worth as much as $1.1 billion. Novartis did not disclose what it paid upfront, but a source familiar with the deal told BioPharma Dive the sum was substantially greater than Kates Series A round last year.In buying Kate, Novartis now owns a slate of preclinical gene therapies for rare, muscle-eroding diseases. The biotechs two most advanced programs respectively target Duchenne muscular dystrophy and a condition known as X-linked myotubular myopathy. Astellas Pharma, one of the largest drugmakers is Japan, has been partnering on that latter program since Kate officially launched in June of last year.Kate debuted with $51 million from that Series A fundraising round, which was co-led by its founder, Westlake Village Partners, and Versant Ventures. The company claims its technology which stems from research conducted by a team of scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard can make gene therapies that are more precise and able to reach parts of the body they normally have trouble hitting, like the heart. Sharif Tabebordbar, who was the main author of that research, went on to co-found Kate and now serves as its chief scientific officer.We have been highly impressed with the rigor and potential of Kates science, and we are confident this acquisition will further enhance our ability to bring forward new therapeutic options for patients living with neuromuscular diseases, said Fiona Marshall, Novartis president of biomedical research, in a statement.Novartis already has experience in neuromuscular gene therapies, having launched Zolgensma, a blockbuster medicine for spinal muscular atrophy. Zolgensma had been given the growth driver moniker not too long ago, but sales of the drug havent been as strong recently. They totaled $1.2 billion in 2023, down 9% under constant currency exchange rates. And they were flat in the third quarter, at $308 million, compared to the same three-month period last year.Sales from Novartis broader neuroscience business were still up 19% in the third quarter, thanks mostly to the multiple sclerosis medication Kesimpta.The Kate acquisition comes almost a year and a half after Novartis agreed to buy DTx Pharma, a startup aiming to use RNA drugmaking technology to treat neurological diseases. The deal, which carried a $500 million upfront payment, handed Novartis a few experimental drugs that had yet to reach human testing.DTx was one in a series of smaller-scale purchases Novartis made over the past couple years. The company snagged the radiopharmaceutical developer Mariana Oncology for $1 billion, the kidney disease drugmaker Chinook Therapeutics for as much as $3.5 billion, and the cancer specialist Morphosys for roughly $2.9 billion.It also scored a portfolio of potential immune system drugs by buying a subsidiary of IFM Therapeutics for $90 million up front.Ned Pagliarulo contributed reportingEditors note: This story has been updated to further characterize the acquisition price Novartis paid for Kate. '