J&J takes vic­to­ry lap on its Carvyk­ti da­ta. But how many pa­tients will take it — and when? #AS­CO23

CHICA­GO — When Ley­la Shune first heard about a leaked ab­stract last month de­scrib­ing a dra­mat­ic 74% re­duc­tion in the risk of dis­ease pro­gres­sion or death for Carvyk­ti, J&J and Leg­end Biotech’s CAR-T ther­a­py, she couldn’t con­tain her ex­cite­ment.

“Amaze­ment. Won­der. Stand­ing ova­tion,” Shune, a physi­cian at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kansas Can­cer Cen­ter, said of her re­ac­tion.

Mon­day morn­ing at AS­CO, the com­pa­nies con­firmed that fig­ure, say­ing adults with mul­ti­ple myelo­ma who had re­ceived be­tween one and three pre­vi­ous treat­ments be­fore Carvyk­ti were 74% less like­ly to die or see their can­cer progress com­pared to pa­tients tak­ing more stan­dard reg­i­mens.

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