After three and a half years, Johnson & Johnson is walking away from a partnership with Capricor Therapeutics focused on the use of stem cells to treat cardiovascular disease.
J&J's Janssen unit has decided not to exercise its option to exclusively license the California-based biotech's lead candidate CAP-1002 (allogeneic cardiosphere-derived cells) for development and commercialization in the field of cardiology. Capricor will retain all rights to develop and commercialize CAP-1002 for any indication, either independently or in collaboration with third parties.
The news does not come as a surprise after CAP-1002 missed the target in a phase 1/2 study involving patients who had suffered a heart attack. Additionally, in April, interim results from a trial in Duchenne muscular dystrophy revealed promising results for the new indication, which lies outside the scope of Capricor's license with J&J.
Read the press release