May 2, 2018 Johnson & Johnson paid up to US$1 billion to acquire BeneVir Biopharm

       In Nature, a news titled “Cancer killing viruses show promise – and draw billion-dollar investment” mentioned, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced on 2 May that it would pay up to US$1 billion to acquire a company called BeneVir Biopharm, that makes cancer-killing viruses.

      In the past, oncolytic virus monotherpy or immune-checkpoint inhibitors combining with other therapies hardly did not work expectedly in clinical trials, and some of the combinations that had been highly anticipated were frequently failed in clinical trials. Therefore, Breakthrough results of oncolytic viruses combined with immune-checkpoint inhibitors in recent clinical studies will make researchers’ hope to rekindle!

      What is gratifying is that, after Merck bought Viralytics for $394 million in February this year, pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson announced that it will spend $1 billion to acquire another oncolytic virus company-BeneVir Biopharm on May 2. Researchers are currently working to improve the effectiveness of oncolytic viruses in tumors, including brain tumors. I believe that there is a lot of money to help, the future of cancer patients can be expected.

Reference ：

Nature 557, 150-151 (2018). DIO: 10.1038/d41586-018-05104-1