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Ryan McDonald, Associate Editorial Director for CURE®, has been with the team since February 2020 and has previously covered medical news across several specialties prior to joining MJH Life Sciences. He is a graduate of Temple University, where he studied journalism and minored in political science and history. He considers himself a craft beer snob and would like to open a brewery in the future. During his spare time, he can be found rooting for all major Philadelphia sports teams. Follow Ryan on Twitter @RMcDonald11 or email him at rmcdonald@curetoday.com.
Arzerra will be available at no cost to patients via an oncology patient access program which will be facilitated through Patient Access Novartis Oncology.
Genmab has announced that Novartis plans to make Arzerra (ofatumumab) available at no cost to patients in the United States with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Arzerra is developed by Novartis under a licensing agreement between the two pharmaceutical companies.
Novartis, according to a press release, has agreed to pay Genmab a lump sum of $30 million to account for potential lost revenue. The drug will be available at no cost to patients via an oncology patient access program which will be facilitated through Patient Access Novartis Oncology.
Arzerra was first approved in October 2009 to treat patients with CLL who had received all other available therapies. In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration approved Arzerra for the extended treatment of patients with recurrent or progressive CLL who were in complete or partial response following two or more lines of therapy.
There was no indication in the release as to when the program will go into effect.
“We are pleased that patients with CLL who have benefitted from Arzerra can remain on treatment via Novartis’ patient access program,” said Genmab’s CEO Jan van de Winkel in the release.
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