J&J wows with a $350M cash deal to part­ner on CAR-T with Leg­end, a one-time un­known un­til its star turn at AS­CO

J&J has found its next big can­cer drug. In Chi­na.

The phar­ma gi­ant has agreed to pay $350 mil­lion up­front to part­ner with Leg­end Biotech to de­vel­op its BC­MA-tar­get­ing CAR-T LCAR-B38M for mul­ti­ple myelo­ma.

Don’t know Leg­end? You should.

The vir­tu­al­ly un­known biotech wowed AS­CO with ear­ly-stage da­ta on its CAR-T and clear­ly caught J&J’s at­ten­tion. The deal vaults J&J in­to an in­tense­ly com­pet­i­tive race to get the first BC­MA cell ther­a­py to an ap­proval, with blue­bird bio in the lead and Juno and oth­ers in hot pur­suit.

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