J&J bets $40M cash on biotech's ADC tech and its bat­tle-test­ed CEO — with biobucks adding to $1B

Try­ing to see if it can find new us­es for a suite of an­ti­bod­ies its Janssen sub­sidiary has de­vel­oped, J&J has tapped Mer­sana Ther­a­peu­tics for an an­ti­body-drug con­ju­gate dis­cov­ery pact.

To kick things off, J&J is hand­ing over $40 mil­lion cash in a heav­i­ly back-end­ed deal that can add up to more than $1 bil­lion, mile­stones in­clud­ed.

For Cam­bridge, MA-based Mer­sana, the en­dorse­ment could give a much-need­ed boost as pres­i­dent and CEO An­na Pro­topa­pas march­es on with a years-long ef­fort to re­make the biotech af­ter lift­ing it out of the val­ley of the shad­ow of death.

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