Novartis has been working to alleviate the condition of CML (Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia) patients with a long-term vision of a trouble-free life for the CML patient. Today their medication Glivec represents the gold standard in first line treatment and it demonstrates a 94% sickness-specific survival after seven years of treatment. But for Novartis, the fight against the disease doesn’t stop there and their second generation treatment, Tasigna, was developed to address the needs of the very small percentage of patients resistant or intolerant to Glivec.
The task was to position Tasigna as the medication of choice for patients unable to continue with Glivec treatment.
Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) originates from a translocation of genes that creates a mutation, the Philadelphia chromosome Ph+. This in turn generates the cancer gene bcr-abl which produces an enzyme (tyrosine kinase) that initiates an uncontrolled cell division. By blocking the enzyme bcr-abl Tyrosine Kinase, the cause of CML, Novartis aims to stop the uncontrolled production of white blood cells. In this Glivec has shown itself to be the gold standard in treatment. The second generation treatment, Tasigna, binds bcr-abl even more effectively for better blocking of the tyrosine kinase enzyme.
While positioning Tasigna within the context of an ongoing fight against CML, the message highlighted the precise targeting of the cancer gene.
This highlighted exactly how Tasigna should be used and for whom, explaining how it targets preferentially, how it binds to 32 of the 33 imatinib (Glivec) resistant mutations and how well tolerated it is by patients who may exhibit resistance or intolerance to Glivec.
