The current pace of healthcare innovation is rapid with fast-moving biotech companies taking risks to find the next big thing, and industry leaders using decades of proven know-how and scale to turn vision into reality. Meaningful momentum in the healthcare arena requires a deft understanding of how to balance innovation across the broad spectrum – and the right partnerships can be critical to this process.
Reinforced by industry-leading capabilities, global scale, and financial flexibility, Johnson & Johnson brings a strong record of strategic partnering, collaboration and deal-making to accelerate innovation. While Johnson & Johnson has been recognized as the industry leader in deal-making, sustained success takes looking ahead to remain a desired Partner of Choice – and to continue driving impact for patients.
Strengthening Johnson & Johnson’s Innovative Medicine Pipeline
Our industry-leading pipeline and portfolio is a result of an innovation-based strategy and deep scientific expertise, world-class capabilities, and a source-agnostic, win-win approach to external innovation, which includes a significant investment in both Business Development and Research & Development.
We recognize that no one company can do everything, and strategic focus is necessary. Investments and collaborations continue to bolster our pipeline with new, investigational assets and with breakthrough innovations that are in-market, helping patients today.
Strategic partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions to bring this innovation to bear have strengthened Johnson & Johnson’s capabilities across oncology, immunology, and neuroscience, and in select areas of cardiopulmonary and specialty ophthalmology. In fact, the impact of many of these deals can now be found embedded in our Innovative Medicine portfolio helping to treat millions of patients around the world today.
“What matters most is the potential for transformational innovation, regardless of a partner’s size, sector, or stage of development,” said Nauman Shah, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine Business Development. “Our scale, scope, and financial flexibility position us well to consider opportunities to combine capabilities that could advance healthcare – and to pursue many different types of strategic collaborations, acquisitions and partnerships.”
In recent months, investments and collaborations have strengthened Johnson & Johnson’s capabilities across therapeutic areas and modalities, including oral peptides, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), and CD20-targeted CAR-Ts, resulting in the advancement of breakthrough innovations that have the potential to change patient lives. Notable recent progress has been made in ADCs, precision medicine cancer drugs that carry payloads to a treatment site to inject and kill cancer cells, and bispecific antibodies, where Johnson & Johnson has added entirely new platforms to treat different immune conditions.
Illustration of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cell immunotherapy, a process that is being developed to treat cancer. T cells (blue), part of the body’s immune system, are taken from the patient and have their DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) modified by viruses (spiky spheres) so that they produce chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) proteins. These proteins will be specific to the patient’s cancer. The modified T cells are then multiplied in the laboratory before being reintroduced to the patient.
KEITH CHAMBERS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIB/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF
Business Development Approach
Deep scientific expertise is vital to validate the most promising candidates, and those that fit best into Johnson & Johnson’s existing portfolio and pipeline. Equally important to partnering across the innovation ecosystem are the less tangible attributes – chemistry and compatibility as enablers to strong collaboration.
“Establishing trust and transparency is a priority in every deal we explore,” Shah said. “Of course, science is what guides us in determining whether a potential deal should move forward, but our reputation as a trustworthy potential partner opens doors and helps us to move quickly. We know the best deals are ones where patient impact is at the center, and that is what we strive for every time.”
Partnership in Action
Recent bispecific antibodies evolution came through Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Proteologix. Proteologix founder and Chief Executive Officer, David Shen, shared what gave Johnson & Johnson the edge in securing the deal and its early pipeline of innovative bispecific antibodies that hold the potential to transform treatments for patients living with atopic dermatitis and other immune-mediated diseases.
“Johnson & Johnson was very focused, quite fast, and highly collaborative, and they demonstrated that they had the expertise to advance these bispecific antibodies,” Shen said. “At the end of the day, we want to see our drugs be successful in clinical settings.”
Shen said he has consistently seen the same qualities as the Proteologix and Johnson & Johnson clinical teams collectively advance the clinical programs.
“It can be hard to move things quickly, but they collaborated very closely with us to move into clinical trials following our original timeline,” he said. “We are excited to see things move at this pace, because we know patients are waiting.”
While every company has different needs and goals, Shen encouraged other leaders to consider the practical benefits of partnering with a company like Johnson & Johnson that has the scope, scale, and scientific chops to quickly and effectively advance new medicines through trials and into the market.
From left: David Lee, Global Immunology Therapeutic Area Head, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine; David Shen, Proteologix founder and Chief Executive Officer; Nauman Shah, Global Head of Business Development, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine; Tayseer Ghazzouli, Senior Director, Integration Leader, Immunology, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine
“Johnson & Johnson has proven to be the right partner for us,” Shen said. “They are serious about our molecules, they really want to work with us, and they are moving fast in a competitive environment.”
Continuing to drive important innovation – in every form – is a top priority for the organization.
“Johnson & Johnson’s pipeline is unmatched and fueled by breakthrough science and transformative technology,” Shah said. “Alongside our world-class internal R&D teams, we’re proud of our work in business development across the broader biotech ecosystem to find collaborative ways to champion important opportunities to transform healthcare.”
Johnson & Johnson recognizes the power of purpose-driven collaboration and knows that, together with key stakeholders across the healthcare continuum, we can accomplish truly remarkable advances in human health.
Interested in collaborating with Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine? Contact us with your idea!