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.
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.