SWOG Clinical Trials Partnerships Announces Preferred Partnership Program’s First Collaboration
SWOG Clinical Trials Partnerships (SWOG CTP) has signed a collaborative research agreement with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation to form a strategic alliance via our Preferred Partnership Program that will jointly develop and conduct clinical trials investigating potential new cancer treatments.
This relationship will carry out clinical and translational research under the scientific leadership of the SWOG Cancer Research Network using investigational drugs developed by Novartis. This preferred partnership will initially focus on testing treatments for leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and myelofibrosis.
“SWOG CTP is excited by the possibilities of this preferred partnership with Novartis,” said Charles D. Blanke, MD, group chair of the SWOG Cancer Research Network. “Novartis’s very deep and impressive pipeline of investigational cancer drugs offers great potential for our patients.”
SWOG CTP is the mechanism the SWOG Cancer Research Network uses to collaborate with industry partners. It is a limited liability corporation under SWOG’s charitable arm, The Hope Foundation, and is directed by Kathy S. Albain, MD, SWOG vice chair for Clinical Trials Partnerships.
The collaboration under the Preferred Partnership Program, SWOG CTP’s first, will pursue a range of clinical trial strategies and designs appropriate to each disease site or pathway being targeted. These may include master protocols or multiple parallel phase II trials, or may follow a platform approach to test agents across multiple diseases or subtypes. These models would allow for the development of subsequent phase III or drug registration study designs.
The partnership is governed by a joint steering committee, consisting of senior leaders from both organizations, that provides executive oversight of conducted studies. SWOG will function as the sponsor of these studies for regulatory purposes.