Johnson & Johnson Committing $500 Million To HIV, TB Fight

By Chris Wack

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) said Friday it is committing more than $500 million to research and development and delivery programs over the next four years to accelerate global efforts to eliminate HIV and tuberculosis by 2030.

The health-care company said it will dedicate a team of researchers to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of next generation medicines and vaccines to complement investments being made by governments.

"No single institution can tackle the historic challenge of eliminating an infectious disease," said Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson.

As part of the $500 million investment, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson will continue to advance an investigational mosaic-based vaccine regimen to prevent HIV together with a consortium of partners.

The company said an ongoing efficacy trial in 2,600 women in southern Africa is fully enrolled. A second efficacy trial is about to begin in North America, South America and Europe with 3,800 men who have sex with men and transgender individuals.

In partnership with ViiV Healthcare, Janssen also is working on a long-acting injectable HIV treatment regimen that could be administered to patients once every two months. This regimen, if approved, could potentially reduce HIV treatment for some patients to just 12 or even six injection visits per year to keep the virus under control, instead of a daily oral treatment taken 365 times a year.

Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 04, 2019 08:18 ET (12:18 GMT)

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