Novartis has nixed six early-stage pipeline programs, swapping in two new phase 1 cancer candidates as replacements.
The six assets don’t appear in Novartis’ Feb. 4 earnings presentation (PDF). A company spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Biotech that they have been discontinued.
Four of the dropped assets are in solid tumor indications, and include AAA802 in prostate cancer, MGY825 in non-small cell lung cancer and KFA115 and HRO761 in unspecified solid tumors, according to a Novartis presentation (PDF) from the third quarter of 2025.
The other two culled candidates are DFV890, an NLRP3 inhibitor in development for low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome, and PIT565 for B-cell malignancies.
“We continually assess opportunities within our portfolio to ensure we are advancing only the highest value medicines with transformative potential for patients,” the Novartis spokesperson told Fierce. “A recent review of our R&D projects resulted in decisions to discontinue a select number of research and early clinical projects.”
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These pipeline culls are “balanced by the addition of new projects entering our pipeline,” the spokesperson added. “We continue to advance approximately 99 projects in clinical development.”
The two new phase 1 programs are AMO959, a prostate cancer candidate targeting DNA repair, and a solid tumor candidate of undisclosed mechanism called GCJ904.
The Swiss drugmaker recently turned some R&D attention to the brain, inking a $1.7 billion pact with SciNeuro Pharmaceuticals for an antibody program designed to shuttle Alzheimer’s disease therapies into the tough-to-reach organ. Novartis is pitching in research funding as the partners work on the program together, with the Big Pharma then set to take over development and advance towards commercialization if all goes well.
That brainy deal came not long after Novartis reneged on another, handing two discovery-stage programs back to neurology-focused biotech Voyager Therapeutics in December.
Novartis’ CEO Vas Narasimhan, M.D., told Fierce in November that the company wants to be “one of the leaders in neuromuscular diseases,” which is why they swung big to snag muscular dystrophy biotech Avidity Biosciences for $12 billion last October.