J&J snags neuro compound from Pipeline for $50 million

Janssen Pharmaceuticals, owned by Johnson & Johnson, will get a worldwide, exclusive license to develop a potential nervous system disorder treatment from Pipeline Therapeutics. Pipeline will receive $50 million up front and could get about $1 billion in success-based payments. Pipeline is also getting up to $25 million in equity investments each from a venture capital arm of Johnson & Johnson and from its existing investors. The US Food and Drug Administration has granted Pipeline’s small molecule, a receptor antagonist called PIPE-307, ­investigational new drug clearance to start clinical trials in people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.