Novartis’ blood cancer sculpture tour has reached a new destination. The Swiss drugmaker, which put the sculptures on show in London one year ago, is marking this year’s Blood Cancer Awareness Month by setting up the artwork at the University of Glasgow.
The art exhibition consists of sculptures of the numbers one to 10. Each sculpture portrays one of 10 key symptoms of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), a set of rare blood cancers. Novartis sells Jakavi, its Incyte-partnered JAK inhibitor, to treat the cancers in markets including the U.K. By raising awareness of the key symptoms, Novartis and its collaborators have sought to enable the early identification of MPN.
People with MPN have symptoms such as fatigue, loss of concentration and night sweats that are also associated with other conditions. Patients and doctors may reach for other, more common explanations for the symptoms before fingering MPN as the cause, delaying diagnosis and treatment.
The sculptures could bump MPN up the list of conditions people consider as causes of the symptoms. For example, the second sculpture shows someone asleep under a blue sky to show how inactivity is a symptom of MPN. Another symptom, weight loss, is represented by a quote about being thin on a sculpture in the shape of the number three.
Each symptom is personified by a character such as “Night Sweats Nick” and “Weight Loss Wendy” that visitors can meet and interact with by scanning QR codes to trigger an augmented reality experience. The exhibition will run from Sept. 2 to 22 at the University of Glasgow, Advanced Research Centre.
In the months since leaving their initial site in London, the sculptures have traveled to locations throughout the U.K., including Bristol and Chiswick Park. According to Novartis, MPNs affect around 4,100 people each year in the U.K. alone.
Novartis reported Jakavi sales of $471 million in the second quarter, up 13% year on year. The company said sales grew across all regions, with strong demand in myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera, two of the three main types of MPN, along with essential thrombocythemia.