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The
deal gives J&J's Janssen unit access to Momenta's experimental
therapy, nipocalimab, being tested for myasthenia gravis, a
neuromuscular disease that causes weakness in muscles, and other
diseases where the immune system attacks the body.
J&J hopes to get the drug approved to treat several conditions
and eventually bring in blockbuster sales, as the company bulks
up its pharmaceuticals unit, its largest business.
Shares of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Momenta were up 69.3%
at $52.15 before the bell, just a hair's breadth away from the
offer price of $52.50.
"Janssen will have the potential to introduce multiple launches,
many as first-in-class indications with potential for
significant peak year sales, some of which could exceed $1
billion," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.
In the past two years, the healthcare conglomerate has unloaded
some divisions that manufacture medical devices for diabetes
care and has also been aiming to bolster its presence in
fast-growing markets such as cancer.
Nipocalimab is being developed to treat diseases where the
body's own antibodies attack or damage proteins and cells.
The deal comes just days after France's Sanofi struck a $3.7
billion deal to buy Principia Biopharma Inc for its pipeline of
autoimmune disease treatments.
Johnson & Johnson said an estimated 2.5% of the global
population have some type of autoantibody-driven disease, many
of which are rare diseases.
Its drug Stelara targets an autoimmune disease called psoriatic
arthritis.
J&J, which is also one of the drugmakers racing to develop a
vaccine for the coronavirus, has recently signed deals with the
United States and Britain for future doses of the vaccine.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva
and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
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