Janssen out-licenses clinical-stage immuno assets

Provention Bio, a New Jersey-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, has entered into agreements with Janssen Pharmaceutica and Janssen Sciences Ireland to in-license two clinical-stage assets.

The compounds from the two subsidiaries of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NSE: JNJ) are PRV-6527 (JNJ-40346527), an oral colony stimulating factor-1 receptor (CSF-1R) small molecule inhibitor, and PRV-300 (JNJ-42915925/CNTO 3157), an anti-toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) monoclonal antibody. No financial terms of the dealhave been disclosed.

PRV-6527 will be studied in a Phase IIa proof-of-concept (PoC) clinical trial in Crohn’s disease, for which Provention anticipates initiating enrollment in the first half of 2018. PRV-300 will initially be evaluated in a Phase I/II proof-of-mechanism (PoM), PoC study in moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (UC), which Provention expects to also initiate in the first half of 2018. PRV-300 also has the potential to target additional indications, including severe influenza and emerging viral diseases.