J&J breaks off al­liance with ar­genx, drop­ping CD70 AML drug and ax­ing $1.3B in biobucks

Over the past two and a half years, J&J sci­en­tists have rolled up their sleeves along­side part­ners at ar­genx to get a clos­er look at the an­ti-CD70 an­ti­body cusat­uzum­ab, chas­ing what a top ex­ec con­sid­ered “an im­por­tant tar­get in the bi­ol­o­gy of se­lect can­cers,” start­ing with acute myeloid leukemia.

The phar­ma gi­ant de­cid­ed it’s time to call it quits.

Cilag — the Janssen sub­sidiary in charge of the pro­gram — is cut­ting off the col­lab­o­ra­tion and re­turn­ing the world­wide com­mer­cial rights to cusat­uzum­ab. With in­ter­im Phase Ib da­ta in hand, ar­genx says it will “eval­u­ate all al­ter­na­tives to ad­vance” the drug while prepar­ing for the launch of its lead can­di­date, ef­gar­tigi­mod, cur­rent­ly un­der FDA re­view.

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