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Interview with Dr Guido Guidi

Created by: A. Hellenbrecht , generated 2008/09/16 , last changed: 2008/09/16

Interview with Dr Guido Guidi, (Head of Region Europe Novartis Oncology), 28 June 2007, Heidelberg, Germany

Question: Dr Guidi, you are responsible for Novartis oncology activities within Europe – please could you highlight some of these?

Europe is very important to Novartis – it is number 2 in the market and represents nearly 40% of the total oncology market for Novartis. We currently have more than 15 projects in the pipeline close to development and in the coming years, we will be involved with a lot of institutions in Europe.

Question: Dr Guidi, how important is the area of hematology for Novartis Oncology?

Being the company who discovered, developed and introduced Glivec, probably the most important drug in the area of cancer to the market, the area of hematology is of course very important to Novartis Oncology. We have a special commitment for cancer and in particular hematology. Hematology at the moment represents approximately 55% of the total turnover of the company and we have other interesting projects in this area. In particular, we have a new product coming for AML, products for multiple melanoma and we also have other products in the area of lymphoma. So as you can see, hematology is a very important area for us strategically.

Question: Glivec has changed the way CML is diagnosed and treated today. Can you say anything about ongoing research and development that Novartis oncology is carrying out in the leukemia area?

Glivec represented a great revolution for the treatment of CML. It was possible for the first time to precisely understand the mechanisms underlying cancer and we were able to use Glivec to block the multiplication of cells. However, this was not only important for Glivec so we now have a lot of products that interfere with the multiplication of cells. As I mentioned, we are trying to apply our research to the treatment of AML, which is leukemia that has a more rapid, negative outcome than CML and of course the ability to interfere with the multiplication of cells may have an impact on many other areas.

Question: How do you see the future for CML?

I can at least say that we do see a future. In the past, the disease had a very high mortality rate with, on average, less than 5 years survival. One of the things I can now say is that, thanks to Glivec, patients with CML have a future of many more years, and the mortality of a CML patient now is lower than the mortality of diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. However, this is of course not where we want to stop. We want to try and cure CML, so that when the patient reaches a complete molecular response we are able to look at what we can do to completely cure the patient.

Question: Why did Novartis choose the ELN as a partner to cooperate with on further improving the management of CML?

The European Leukemia Network (ELN) is an extraordinary initiative that was developed through the cooperation of more than 130 different centres around Europe. So, in some ways it was quite natural for a European organisation to interface with another European organisation. In addition, I found a lot of synergies; both organisations want to improve the treatment of CML. The European Leukemia Network is a well-established and well-organised network of scientists and clinicians who know each other and who have a history of cooperation. We will continue in this direction and I hope that we will have some good news for patients in the future.

Question: Can you say anything about the initiatives under this cooperation?

Firstly, I think that the main aim of the initiative is to see whether implementation of the ELN guidelines has an impact on the treatment of patients although we know that some difficulties remain. One of these is the evaluation of response so we are now working with the ELN to standardize the methods being used to assess patient response to CML treatment. In addition, we know that some patients, for whatever reasons, are not taking the right dose of Glivec which has an impact on the outcome of their treatment. Through this cooperation we will put a system in place to monitor the pharmacokinetics of the drug and the impact that this has in order to improve the outcome for the patient.