Cell therapy, a treatment that uses a patient’s own immune cells or the immune cells from another person to fight disease, has revolutionized options for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. Johnson & Johnson has been changing the trajectory of this innovative form of personalized medicine and has led pharmaceuticals within multiple myeloma treatments for more than 20 years. The company currently has one cell therapy treatment for blood cancer on the market and a robust pipeline of diverse cell therapies to treat various cancers in development.
It’s an exciting time for scientists and researchers, who hope that harnessing the power of the immune system can dramatically improve outcomes for people diagnosed with cancer.
“The capabilities it takes to get these therapies to market because of the infrastructure required around manufacturing, development and commercialization is significant,” says Rebecca Poehnelt, Vice President for Global Lymphoma, Leukemia and Cell Therapy Commercial Strategy, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. “Johnson & Johnson is unique because we have the proven capabilities, experience and resources to do it.”
Here’s a closer look at the cell therapies Johnson & Johnson is innovating and the cancers they target, plus how the company is making sure these lifesaving treatments reach patients in need around the world.
Fulfilling the promise of CAR-T
Put simply, cell therapy is the transfer of intact, live cells into a patient to help fight disease. Since 2017, Johnson & Johnson has focused on the development of a type of cell therapy called chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, known as CAR-T.
CAR-T therapy involves collecting a patient’s T cells (a type of immune-system cell) at a treatment site (such as a hospital), transporting the cells to a manufacturing site, reprogramming the genetic material of the T cells so they recognize and target the cancer, transporting the cells back to the treatment site and infusing the modified cells into the patient to attack the cancer cells.
“These engineered T cells can surveil and traffic all over the body to identify the cancer wherever it may be and kill the cancerous cells,” says Molly Perkins, Vice President, Head of Cell and Genetic Medicines Discovery at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine.
Another advantage of cell therapy: T cells can persist, so they can keep killing new cancer cells that arise—which means a patient could potentially stay disease-free for a longer period.
In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Johnson & Johnson’s first CAR-T cell therapy treatment to treat multiple myeloma, or cancer of the bone marrow, in patients for whom other treatments have proven unsuccessful. An estimated 36,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2024, and more than 12,500 Americans will die of the disease.
“Multiple myeloma patients have an extraordinary response to CAR-T cell therapy,” says Perkins. “After a single infusion of these cells, the cells can then persist—we call it a living drug—and keep going until they find and kill the cancer cells.”
Among the other CAR-T therapies currently in development at Johnson & Johnson are treatments that would treat patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Johnson & Johnson researchers are evaluating cell therapy as a treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), which is the most common type of NHL. This cell therapy engineers cells to recognize and attack targets found on the surface of these cancer cells.
More than 18,000 people are diagnosed with DLBCL each year in the U.S., and between 30% to 40% can relapse or eventually become resistant to first-line treatment and require additional treatment options.
The complexity of accessing and delivering cell therapy
As revolutionary as cell therapy is, getting it to patients requires working through the logistical complexities.
“A patient’s cells are removed at the treatment site, shipped out for manufacturing and then transported back to the original treatment facility where the engineered cells are infused into the patient,” says Perkins.
“Because cells extracted from patients must be delivered to the treatment facilities and back to the patients within a limited time frame, transportation considerations are very important,” says Dominique De Jaeger, Vice President, CAR-T Global Supply Chain, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. “Our facilities need to be within easy reach of very good air and road transportation.”
Once patient cells reach a manufacturing facility, the next step of the highly individualized manufacturing process begins. “This is a truly personalized supply chain that requires us to protect and control the chain of identity and chain of custody of each patient’s cells throughout the entire process,” says De Jaeger.
Getting cell therapy to patients
Johnson & Johnson is driven by a strong sense of urgency to broaden access to cell therapy for patients around the globe. The company’s commitment to innovation and collaboration to simplify processes fuels efforts to ensure more patients can benefit from these transformative treatments as quickly and responsibly as possible.
Bringing CAR-T to a larger global market is also a priority. “In addition to being available in the U.S., we have launched our cell therapy to treat patients with blood cancer in Germany, Austria, Brazil, Switzerland and the UK,” says Poehnelt. “We are proud to have treated over 5,000 patients globally with this treatment and are working to accelerate the launch in additional markets around the world, with plans to expand in the next 12 to 18 months.”
Improving the availability of CAR-T therapies in the community setting is a topic that Johnson & Johnson cares deeply about. “We know that many patients with multiple myeloma could potentially benefit from cell therapy, but they may not live close to a large academic medical center with expertise in administering these treatments,” says Poehnelt.
In addition to its in-house capabilities, Johnson & Johnson is further growing its manufacturing footprint by partnering with other manufacturing organizations.
“We have already more than quadrupled our manufacturing capacity since we launched and are on track to significantly expand our patient reach around the world in the coming years,” says De Jaeger.
Our goal with blood cancers is to turn incurable diseases into curable diseases.
The future of cell therapy
Johnson & Johnson’s ongoing innovation in cell therapy plays a critical role in helping to transform outcomes for patients with blood cancers like multiple myeloma. “Cell therapy is among the most efficacious platforms in blood cancers,” says Poehnelt. “Our goal with blood cancers is to turn incurable diseases into curable diseases.”
In the future, cell therapy may have the potential to take on a more expanded role. “Right now, all of our products in the clinical development and commercial stage are for hematologic malignancies,” says Perkins. “But there is commitment to make CAR-T cells work for solid tumors and be able to treat patients with cancer who right now don’t have good cell therapy options.”
Johnson & Johnson is one of a few companies that can point to several examples of industry-leading excellence in its cell therapy pipeline and on-market portfolio, where it is poised to advance the next generation of cancer care.
The possibilities are energizing the company’s scientists and researchers, who are inspired by the idea of using cell therapy to tackle diseases beyond the blood cancer space. Ultimately, the goal is to create a world where chronic or incurable conditions can be treated or cured with a single treatment—one that patients all over the world will be able to access.
