The Swiss drugmaker said on Friday it does not foresee Kymriah supply issues at this time.

Novartis has been shipping immune cells from European cancer patients receiving its so-called CAR-T therapy for re-engineering at one of its laboratories in New Jersey. The modified T cells are then sent back to Europe, for re-infusion into patients.

"While we have used passenger aircraft to transport our CAR-T therapies, we have secured alternate options to mitigate potential interruption of supply at this time," Novartis said in a statement. "We are confident that our existing manufacturing supply chain is sufficient to cover our production and distribution needs. We continue to watch the situation closely."

(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)