(Yicai Global) May 4 -- Janssen Biotech, owned by US medical device and drug developer Johnson & Johnson, said it has inked a deal with Cellular Biomedicine Group to jointly develop and bring to market outside of China the biotechn firm's two chimeric antigen receptor T-cell tumor therapies.

Janssen Biotech will pay USD245 million upfront and make subsequent milestone payments to CBMG to obtain the exclusive licensing to develop and commercialize C-CAR039 and C-CAR066, the two firms announced on May 2. Janssen's rights and interest in the Chinese market will be further negotiated, they added.

CAR039 and C-CAR066 have shown promising overall and complete response rates in Phase I studies in patients with relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in China, according to Janssen. The therapies have received the US Food and Drug Administration's investigational new drug clearance, it added.

Some multinationals may not be as efficient as Chinese companies in research and development, so they come to China seeking tie-ups, Chen Zhui, co-founder of Shanghai-based Abbisko Therapeutics, told Yicai Global. The capital and platform advantages they bring will help to speed up the success rate of Chinese biotech startups, he added.

CBMG is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing tumor cell therapies, with R&D facilities in Shanghai and Rockwell in the United States.

In 2017, Janssen partnered with Chinese biopharm firm Legend Biotech and gained a license to develop and take to market its CAR-T therapy. Carvykti was approved by the US FDA in February last year for treating relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma and was the first CAR-T therapy developed by a Chinese firm to successfully land in overseas markets.

China's CAR-T therapy market will likely grow to CNY28.9 billion (USD4.2 billion) in 2030 from CNY1.5 billion (USD217 million) last year, according to researchers at Frost & Sullivan.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev