Novartis AG announced that Advanced Accelerator Applications, a subsidiary of Novartis Groupe S.A., has received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its new drug application (NDA) for Lutathera(®)(lutetium Lu 177 dotatate*) for the treatment of somatostatin receptor positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), including foregut, midgut, and hindgut neuroendocrine tumors, in adults. Lutathera, which received orphan drug designation from the FDA, is a first-in- class drug and the first available FDA-approved Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT), a form of treatment comprising of a targeting molecule that carries a radioactive component. The approval was based on a Phase 3 study which demonstrated a 79% reduction in the risk of disease progression or death within the Lutathera plus best standard of care arm (octreotide LAR 30mg every four weeks) compared to 60 mg of octreotide LAR alone (hazard ratio 0.21, 95% CI; 0.13-0.32; p<00.001). Novartis recently completed a successful tender offer for Advanced Accelerator Applications to become a subsidiary within the Novartis Group. The approval of Lutathera is based on results of a randomized pivotal Phase 3 study, NETTER-1 that compared treatment using Lutathera plus best standard of care (octreotide LAR 30mg every four weeks) to 60 mg of octreotide LAR, also dosed every four weeks, in patients with inoperable midgut NETs progressing under standard dose octreotide LAR treatment and overexpressing somatostatin receptors, as well as a subset of efficacy and safety data from an international, single-institution, single-arm, open-label trial conducted by Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands in more than 1,200 patients with somatostatin receptor positive tumors.