In response to a question on manufacturing scale at Legend Biotech’s R&D day yesterday, the company’s top exec said its partnership with Johnson & Johnson will be doubling its investment in its New Jersey manufacturing center and will be investing a total of $500 million.
With an eye on their BCMA-directed CAR-T therapy Carvykti (cilta-cel), approved in February as a fifth-line treatment for multiple myeloma, Legend CEO Ying Huang said that the ramp-up in production and the decision to manufacture its own lentiviral vectors — currently in shortage worldwide — means they won’t have to deal with that shortage.
“So far, Legend and Janssen have invested $250 million in Raritan [New Jersey] and we will invest another $250 million jointly,” a Legend spokesperson added via email. “The second $250 million will be spent over the next 2-3 years to expand the buildout of our New Jersey site to support peak capacity.”
The buildout is part of efforts to put the companies in position to accommodate for $5 billion-plus in peak projected sales for Carvykti.
Huang said earlier this year that the estimate, which is considerably higher than Bristol Myers Squibb’s estimate of $1 billion for peak Abecma sales, is due to the therapy’s potential to reach earlier lines of treatment.
SVB Securities analysts on Tuesday called the $500 million announcement “the extreme side of cGMP facility expenses,” noting that the expansion will help them
Carvykti
stole the show at ASCO 2017
when Legend CSO Frank Fan and his team reported an impressive 100% overall response rate among multiple myeloma patients. That was enough for Janssen to jump in
with a $350 million cash deal
to partner on the big cancer candidate.
SVB Securities added, while estimating a launch date for BMS and 2seventy’s Abecma (ide-cel) in third to fifth line multiple myeloma in the first half of 2023, on the manufacturing front:
