June 8 (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson said on Monday it will acquire biotech Firefly Bio for $1 billion in cash, as it looks to expand its cancer drug pipeline.
Firefly’s Firelink platform uses antibodies to deliver a protein-degrading drug directly into cancer cells, an approach J&J says could help attack tumors while sparing more healthy tissue than existing treatments.
The platform for tumors with a mutation in a gene known as KRAS “bolsters Johnson & Johnson’s oncology pipeline and ambition to develop targeted medicines for the most prevalent and hard-to-treat solid tumors with high unmet need,” said the drugmaker.
“KRAS has notoriously been considered an undruggable target and patients with KRAS-driven cancers continue to face limited treatment options with survival measured in months, not years,” said John Reed, executive vice president, innovative medicine, research & development at J&J.
The transaction is expected to close later this year.
(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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