On Friday, Legend Biotech (LEGN -3.50%) became the latest biotechnology start-up to pull off a surprisingly successful initial public offering. The cell-based cancer therapy developer originally intended to raise around $350 million, but investors eager to invest in a corner of the economy relatively unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic piled in and pushed Legend's haul up to a stunning $424 million.
Impressive responses
Legend Biotech doesn't have any products to sell, yet, but it could launch a chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy called JNJ-4528 in partnership with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.67%) and receive heaps of royalties and milestone payments in the process. Legend burst on the scene a few years ago with impressive clinical trial results in treating relapsed multiple myeloma patients with JNJ-4528, and the data keeps getting better.
Image source: Getty Images.
Multiple myeloma patients who relapse more than once are notoriously difficult to treat, but all 29 patients treated with a single infusion of JNJ-4528 responded. At a median follow-up time of 11.5 months, 86% of patients were in complete remission.
Next steps
Johnson & Johnson has already injected $460 million into Legend in the form of upfront and milestone payments, and the small company remains eligible to receive up to $1.34 billion more from it down the road if JNJ-4528 passes a series of regulatory and commercial milestones.
If the therapy is approved, the partners will share development and commercialization costs in all countries outside of China, and in China 70% of profits will go to Legend and the rest to Johnson & Johnson.
Aug. 1, 2020, Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story said that all profits (not just those in China) would be split 70%/30% between Legend and Johnson & Johnson. The story has been updated.
