Johnson & Johnson made the largest splash at this year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference,
acquiring
Intra-Cellular Therapies and its neuropsychiatric drug Caplyta for $14.6 billion.
On the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call Wednesday, pharma executives stood by Intra-Cellular’s projection that the drug could eclipse $5 billion in annual sales.
“I know the company has guided to it being a $5 billion-plus asset; we definitely think that it will be as well,” said Jennifer Taubert, EVP and worldwide chair of the innovative medicines group. She added that J&J is also bullish on one of Intra-Cellular’s lead clinical-stage assets, ITI-1284, currently in development as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and Alzheimer’s disease agitation.
“We see Intra-Cellular as both a near-term, as well as a long-term growth catalyst for us,” Taubert said.
A major milestone for Caplyta to reach that sales figure would be snagging expanded approval as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder. The biotech submitted a supplemental new drug application to the FDA in early December. Caplyta was expected to bring in more than $650 million in 2024 sales, according to Intra-Cellular.
Global head of pharma R&D John Reed said that the acquisition, and Caplyta’s potential depression indication, do not mean that J&J is deprioritizing its clinical-stage depression meds. Both aticaprant and seltorexant are in Phase 3 studies as adjunctive major depressive disorder treatments. J&J
previously said
those drugs both have the potential to earn $1 billion to $5 billion in peak annual sales.
“We see this broad portfolio, which includes, of course, Spravato, as a repertoire of different mechanisms we can bring to bear,” Reed said.
Spravato has already reached blockbuster status,
eclipsing $1 billion in sales
in 2024. Earlier this week, it snagged an expanded label as a monotherapy for patients with treatment-resistant depression who did not respond to at least two other oral antidepressants.