Blood Cancer United Buys Discontinued Drug Luvelta
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- Blood Cancer United, formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is purchasing the remaining supply of Luvelta, a discontinued investigational cancer drug, and will also take over the investigational new drug designation to run the compassionate-use program for children with a rare blood cancer at no cost while supplies last.
- Sutro Biopharma discontinued development of Luvelta in March 2025 and had previously eliminated its compassionate-use program, prompting the nonprofit to step in and acquire leftover stock.
- Novo Nordisk disclosed a security incident in which certain information, including patient data from some clinical trials, was copied externally without authorization from its internal IT systems.
- Categories of personal data potentially exposed include patient ID, year of birth, sex, and health or immunogenicity data, according to Novo Nordisk.
- Novo Nordisk has launched a probe with external cybersecurity experts and is in contact with relevant authorities, and said it does not believe the breach will allow any third party to identify individual clinical-trial participants.
Why it matters: The Luvelta deal turns a discontinued drug into a lifeline for a small pediatric population, with Blood Cancer United absorbing the logistics that Sutro walked away from. The Novo Nordisk breach puts a high-profile obesity-drug maker on the list of pharma companies handling patient data under scrutiny, though Novo maintains trial participants can't be re-identified from the exposed fields.
