Janssen announces rheumatoid arthritis drug research alliance

Janssen is to collaborate with a University of Queensland start-up company to research and develop a new rheumatoid arthritis therapy.

The new drug will be a targeted therapy that will allow suitable patients to be selected based on specific biomarkers, thereby improving response rates, while also addressing the underlying cause of the disease rather than its symptoms.

This immunotherapy treatment will be developed in partnership by Dendright, a start-up company of the University of Queensland's main commercialisation company UniQuest.

Dendright received seed funding from Janssen in 2012 to undertake early preclinical studies for this compound.

The university's Diamantina Institute lead autoimmunity researcher Professor Ranjeny Thomas said: "We are very pleased to be continuing and strengthening our strategic collaboration with Janssen, focusing on the application of our platform technology towards rheumatoid arthritis."

Last month, Janssen announced that it is advancing its tumour metabolism alliance with Forma Therapeutics to provide additional research funding, while also exploring new targets.