Janssen Biotech (Johnson & Johnson) + Legend Biotech
Janssen Biotech (Johnson & Johnson)
Horsham, Pennsylvania · 1 relationship
Active relationship
Strategic Partnership · 2017–present
Legend Biotech
Bridgewater, New Jersey · 1 relationship
Analysis
In December 2017, Janssen Biotech entered a worldwide collaboration and license agreement with Legend Biotech affiliates for LCAR-B38M, a BCMA-directed CAR-T candidate later named ciltacabtagene autoleucel, or cilta-cel. The agreement covered development, manufacture and commercialization, with Janssen recording worldwide net trade sales except in Greater China. [1]
The original terms allocated economics by territory. Janssen and Legend agreed to share costs and profits equally outside Greater China, while in Greater China Janssen and Legend were assigned 30% and 70%, respectively; Janssen also paid a $350 million upfront amount and agreed to additional milestones. Legend's 2025 Form 20-F reports that the upfront amount was received in 2018 and that cumulative additional milestones reached $415 million by December 31, 2025. [1] [2]
CARVYKTI received its first U.S. approval on February 28, 2022. The FDA currently identifies it as ciltacabtagene autoleucel and lists its indication for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma after specified prior therapy, with a boxed warning covering serious risks including cytokine-release syndrome and neurologic toxicities. [2] [3]
The collaboration has become a large commercial program while retaining its territorial structure. Legend's 2025 filing reports approximately $1.9 billion in CARVYKTI net trade sales and says the agreement remains in force while cilta-cel is sold; a March 2026 release reported more than 10,000 patients treated and 294 sites worldwide. A 2026 supply agreement makes Legend the manufacturer and supplier outside Greater China, while Legend leads Greater China and may elect a limited U.S. commercialization role. [2] [4]
Participants
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Janssen Biotech (Johnson & Johnson)
Horsham, Pennsylvania · 1 record in this database
Janssen Biotech, Inc. is a Pennsylvania corporation whose principal place of business is listed as 800 Ridgeview Drive, Horsham, Pennsylvania. It operates within Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical organization, although the legal entity is distinct from the broader Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine brand. [1] [3]
The entity’s biotechnology lineage runs through Centocor. Johnson & Johnson’s corporate timeline records the acquisition of Centocor in 1999, while a Johnson & Johnson announcement identifies Janssen Biotech as formerly Centocor Ortho Biotech. The latter company was associated with REMICADE (infliximab), an anti-tumor-necrosis-factor therapy used in inflammatory diseases and reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for pediatric ulcerative colitis. [2] [4]
The name “Janssen” also reflects a separate but connected historical lineage. Johnson & Johnson says Dr. Paul Janssen founded Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium in 1953, and that Johnson & Johnson acquired the company in 1961; in 2010, Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical companies adopted the shared Janssen identity. In September 2023, that broader pharmaceutical organization became Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. [3]
Johnson & Johnson describes Innovative Medicine’s current therapeutic areas as oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiopulmonary disease and specialty ophthalmology. Its corporate timeline identifies Janssen Biotech’s 2015 DARZALEX (daratumumab) launch as the first human anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody available for multiple myeloma, illustrating the company’s continuing association with biologic and antibody-based medicines. The Janssen Biotech entity is included here because it is the Johnson & Johnson operating company named in biopharmaceutical collaboration and commercialization agreements, including those connected with cell-therapy development. [3] [4]
Bridgewater, New Jersey · 1 record in this database
Legend Biotech is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, manufacturing and commercializing cell therapies for oncology and other indications. The company says it was founded as an early-stage cell-therapy company in 2014 and that its scientists began focusing in 2015 on chimeric-antigen-receptor T cells targeting B-cell maturation antigen, or BCMA. Investigator-initiated trials in China began in 2016. [1] [2]
In 2017, data from those China trials were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which Legend says led to a partnership with Janssen Biotech to co-develop ciltacabtagene autoleucel, known as cilta-cel. Cilta-cel is an autologous CAR-T therapy directed at BCMA and is marketed in the United States as CARVYKTI. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved CARVYKTI in February 2022 for adults with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who had received four or more prior lines of therapy, and the European Commission granted conditional marketing authorization in May 2022. [2] [3]
Legend Biotech Corporation is incorporated in the Cayman Islands as a holding company and conducts operations through subsidiaries primarily in the United States, China and Europe. Its 2025 Form 20-F described approximately 2,900 employees, while the current investor-relations site describes more than 3,000 employees and lists the global headquarters at 77 Corporate Drive, Bridgewater, New Jersey. [1] [3]
CARVYKTI remains the company’s commercial anchor. Legend’s 2025 results release reported approximately $1.9 billion in full-year net trade sales, more than 10,000 patients treated, and availability at 294 sites worldwide. The same release says the company advanced early-stage programs that include in-vivo candidates and LUCAR-G39D, an allogeneic CAR-T therapy, indicating a strategy that extends beyond its first commercial autologous product. [4]
The Legend-Janssen relationship is central to the entity’s place in this database: the collaboration connects a cell-therapy program originating in Legend’s China-based research work with Johnson & Johnson’s global development and commercialization organization. Legend continues to describe CARVYKTI as developed and marketed with Johnson & Johnson while building an end-to-end cell-therapy company around the product and its broader pipeline. [1] [2]