| |JANUARY 20269ILLUMINA LAUNCHES BILLION CELL ATLAS TO ADVANCE DRUG DISCOVERYNOVARTIS' IANALUMAB EARNS FDA BREAKTHROUGH NOD FOR SJOGREN'SNovartis today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to ianalumab for Sjogren's disease, marking a major step for patients with limited treatment options.The decision highlights the promise of ianalumab to change care in the second most common rheumatic autoimmune disease. Novartis plans to begin global regulatory submissions in early 2026. If approved, ianalumab would become the first targeted therapy for this condition."This Breakthrough Therapy designation recognizes the potential for ianalumab to substantially improve the standard of care for people with Sjogren's disease, who currently don't have effective treatment options for this debilitating disease," said Angelika Jahreis, global head, development, immunology, Novartis. "We look forward to working with the agency through the regulatory review process with the hope of making ianalumab available to appropriate patients as quickly as possible."Ianalumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody with a dual action. It depletes B-cells and blocks their activation and survival through BAFF-R inhibition. The designation builds on the Fast Track status the FDA granted the drug in 2016 and is backed by strong data from multiple studies, including replicate phase III trials.Sjögren's disease is a serious, progressive autoimmune disorder that can affect many organs. Patients often live with dryness, fatigue, pain, and a higher risk of lymphoma. About 0.25% of the population is affected, and nearly half remain undiagnosed, often due to misdiagnosis.The global NEPTUNUS-1 and NEPTUNUS-2 trials showed that ianalumab improved disease activity and reduced patient burden. Safety results were favorable, with adverse events comparable to placebo, reinforcing its potential as a new standard of care. POIllumina, Inc. has announced the launch of the Illumina Billion Cell Atlas, a large-scale genomic dataset intended to strengthen the scientific foundation of drug discovery and biomedical research. The announcement was made from San Diego on Thursday, January 15, 2026.The Billion Cell Atlas marks the first phase of Illumina's long-term effort to generate data from five billion cells over the next three years. The initiative is designed to help researchers better understand disease mechanisms, evaluate potential drug targets, and improve the reliability of computational models used in pharmaceutical research. By providing a standardized and deeply characterized dataset, Illumina aims to address one of the key bottlenecks in translating genomic insights into viable therapies.The project is being developed in collaboration with founding partners AstraZeneca, Merck, and Eli Lilly and Company. In its initial stage, the Atlas will focus on a carefully selected panel of cell lines relevant to major disease areas, including cancer research, immune-related disorders, neurological diseases, cardiometabolic conditions, and rare genetic disorders. Using CRISPR genetic perturbation across more than 200 cell lines, the project will systematically measure how changes in gene activity affect cellular behavior.According to Illumina, this approach allows scientists to observe gene function at a scale and consistency that has not been possible with smaller or fragmented datasets. Company leadership noted that the size of the Atlas is intended to reduce experimental variability and improve confidence in downstream biological interpretation. Industry partners also highlighted the value of a shared reference dataset for comparing results across research programs and shortening early-stage discovery timelines.The dataset will be hosted on Illumina's Connected Analytics cloud platform and processed using the company's DRAGEN pipeline. Illumina expects the effort to generate approximately 20 petabytes of transcriptomic data within the first year. Developed under Illumina's newly formed BioInsight business, the Billion Cell Atlas represents a significant infrastructure investment aimed at supporting more reproducible and data-driven drug research. PO
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