Johnson & Johnson has dropped a pair of CAR-T cell therapies, axing programs it once predicted could deliver peak sales north of $5 billion.
The action affects J&J’s CD20 mono CAR-T cell therapy JNJ-9530 and CD19/CD20-targeting bispecific CAR-T called JNJ-4496. The Big Pharma decided to discontinue the programs based on its portfolio priorities and an assessment of “the evolving large B-cell lymphoma treatment landscape,” according to an April 30 statement.
The drug candidates were in phase 1 and 1/2 trials. J&J will continue to support patients in the trials, per the study protocols, the company added.
J&J paid Cellular Biomedicine $245 million for JNJ-9530 and JNJ-4496 in 2023. In June 2025, the company shared phase 1b data on JNJ-4496 in large B-cell lymphoma, reporting complete response rates of 75% to 80% in second-line and later patients at the recommended dose.
At a Morgan Stanley event in September of last year, J&J’s R&D chief John Reed, M.D., Ph.D., said (PDF) the bispecific CAR-T was “delivering what looks like a best-in-disease opportunity with the best complete response rates that have been reported so far.” The next step was to push into phase 3, Reed said at the time.
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At that stage, the CAR-T therapies appeared on track to fulfill the destiny that J&J foresaw for them at an investor event in 2023. J&J named (PDF) its CD20-based CAR-T programs among the assets that could come to market by 2030 and achieve peak sales in excess of $5 billion. The vision was for the candidates to join J&J’s BCMA product Carvykti in a portfolio of blockbuster CAR-T therapies.
J&J’s retreat from that dream eliminates a potential competitor to Gilead’s anti-CD19/CD20 CAR-T therapies, KITE-363 and KITE-753. The biotech is testing both dual-targeting candidates in a phase 1/2 trial. Elsewhere, China’s JW Therapeutics published phase 1 data on its anti-CD19/CD20 CAR-T cell therapy last year.
