Fresh off of his Sanofi exit, John Reed is joining Johnson & Johnson, where he will serve as executive vice president, pharmaceuticals, R&D.
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Fresh off of his Sanofi exit, John Reed is joining Johnson & Johnson, where he will serve as executive vice president, pharmaceuticals, R&D, the New Jersey-based company announced late Monday afternoon.
Monday morning, Sanofi revealed Reed was leaving his post as global head of R&D to “pursue a new opportunity” outside the company.
Reed will start at J&J on Apr. 3, when he will take the place of William Hait who has acted as the interim head of J&J’s pharmaceutical R&D since August 2022.
Reed brings more than 35 years of biomedical research experience to J&J. This will help the company’s pharmaceuticals R&D division “accelerate innovation and competitiveness” in its objective to address unmet medical needs for patients around the world, Joaquin Duato, chairman of the board and CEO, J&J, said in a statement.
Prior to Sanofi, Reed was global head of Roche’s pharmaceutical research & early development division. He also previously served as CEO of an independent non-profit biomedical research institution in California.
Four Potential Approvals
This news comes as J&J is gearing up for four potential drug approvals in the U.S.
In December 2022, the company submitted a Biological License Application for talquetamab to the FDA. Talquetamab is an investigational, off-the-shelf bispecific T-cell engager being studied in multiple myeloma. The candidate is designed to target GPRC5D, a protein overexpressed on myeloma cells, and CD3, which is central to T-cell activation.
Talquetamab’s BLA is supported by data from the Phase I/II first-in-human MonumenTAL-1 study, which documented a 74.1% overall response rate in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients given a 0.4-mg/kg weekly subcutaneous dose of the candidate. Median duration for talquetamab was at least nine months.
The company is also expecting an approval for its hypertension hopeful aprocitentan, a novel dual endothelin receptor antagonist whose New Drug Application was submitted to the FDA in December 2022. J&J is developing aprocitentan in partnership with Swiss biotech Idorsia.
In the EU, J&J is awaiting the potential approval of niraparib as a first-line treatment in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer when used in combination with abiraterone acetate and prednisone. A U.S. regulatory submission is scheduled for 2023 in this indication.
J&J also anticipates approvals for its HIV therapeutic Edurant (rilpivirine) in children ages 2 to 12 years old, and a tablet reduction indication for Erleada (apalutamide) in prostate cancer.
