J&J to buy Momenta in $6.5 bn deal

Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Momenta Pharmaceuticals for about $6.5 billion to bolster its portfolio of drugs for hard-to-treat autoimmune diseases.

J&J’s Janssen unit will gain access to Momenta’s experimental therapy, nipocalimab, which is in late-stage testing for warm antibody hemolytic anaemia, a condition that causes destruction of healthy red blood cells, and mid-stage testing for myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease.

Nipocalimab is expected to eventually win approval to treat several conditions, “many as first-in-class indications with potential for significant peak year sales, some of which could exceed $1 billion,” J&J said in a statement.

(Edits by EP News Bureau)