ASH hears strong data on Novartis

One of the drugs that caused a stir at this year's American Society of Hematology annual meeting in San Francisco was Novartis' Glivec/Gleevec (imatinib).

The Swiss drug major reported that nearly 86% of patients with a life-threatening leukemia treated with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor are still alive seven years after diagnosis.

The findings are from the largest trial ever conducted in newly-diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukemia and show the longest overall survival observed to date in this disease area.