Johnson & Johnson is jettisoning several programs, with three of the culls taking place in the neuroscience field.
The cuts include a midstage study evaluating seltorexant in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease, a change first reported by Endpoints News. The updates are reflected in a development pipeline report found on the Big Pharma’s site.
“We regularly prioritize programs in our portfolio to ensure sustainable delivery of transformative medicines to patients with unmet needs,” a J&J spokesperson told Fierce Biotech in an emailed statement Oct. 15.
Seltorexant is a selective antagonist of the human orexin-2 receptor that garnered a phase 3 win back in May as a daily oral add-on to background SSRI/SNRI antidepressants. That trial had enrolled 588 adults with major depressive disorder and insomnia symptoms who previously did not benefit from antidepressants alone.
The now-cut phase 2 Alzheimer’s trial had been examining seltorexant as a single agent for patients with probable Alzheimer's experiencing clinically significant agitation or aggression. The study had enrolled 70 patients and is now listed as “completed” on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Less than a year ago, the pharma giant emphasized the rise of its R&D work in neuroscience, including the potential seltorexant has as a blockbuster drug. This spring, the company forecast that the drug could eventually bring in yearly sales between $1 billion and $5 billion.
J&J has also ended a phase 1 Parkinson’s disease program testing an asset known as JNJ-0376. Very little was ever publicly shared about the candidate, with the pharma referring to the candidate only as a “novel mechanism” to modify, treat or prevent neurodegenerative disorders in a 2023 presentation (PDF).
The New Jersey-based pharma is also tossing JNJ-55308942, a phase 2 P2X7 antagonist that was studied among patients with bipolar disorder in a major depressive episode. The study enrolled 112 individuals and wrapped up this May, with the asset now completely removed from J&J’s pipeline.
Also missing from J&J’s updated pipeline is JNJ-1459, an early-stage psoriasis candidate that was being developed with X-Chem, a DNA-focused biotech based in Massachusetts.
J&J revealed the pipeline adjustments along with its third-quarter financial results.