Novartis has been experiencing challenges supplying the current demand for PLUVICTO® (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan). We have notified health care providers and treatment centers in the US about these challenges and are actively engaging with them to manage rescheduling of patient doses. Patients who are currently in our scheduling system and awaiting their first doses will need to be rescheduled. We also are taking the difficult but necessary step to pause on accepting new patient starts until we have more supply.
PLUVICTO is currently manufactured at our facility in Ivrea, Italy, in batches with only a 5-day window for each dose to reach its intended patient. Any interruption in the process, from unplanned manufacturing events to doses not arriving in time, may result in patient doses being rescheduled, which has a cascading effect on patients scheduled for future treatment.
At this time, our priority is to supply patients who have received their first doses and are currently in the treatment process. This is important to allow patients who have already begun the treatment cycle to appropriately complete their course of therapy. We continue to ship as many doses as we can to treat as many patients as possible and our clinical trial programs are ongoing.
We also are working to significantly increase PLUVICTO supply over the next 12 months. We completed our filing to the US Food and Drug Administration in February for approval of the Millburn site for commercial production of PLUVICTO for US patients and have requested an expedited review from the agency. Pending approval, Millburn could begin supplying PLUVICTO by this summer, expanding our current manufacturing capacity. We also are building a new facility in Indianapolis that could be operational as soon as the end of this year, which will add significant commercial supply of PLUVICTO.
We recognize that any rescheduled dose is distressing for patients and their loved ones and poses challenges for the treatment centers. We are striving to serve as many patients as possible as quickly as possible as we work through the current situation. For questions or feedback, please contact 1-888-NOW-NOVA (1 888 669 6682).