Genmab's Game-Changer

Genmab A/S's deal with Johnson & Johnson for daratumumab is another sign the Danish biotech is making good on a two-year-old pledge to increase partnering and focus on new antibody technologies. The deal also gives Genmab the financial runway it needs to reach Phase III data readouts that could significantly expand the label for its one marketed drug, Arzerra ofatumumab.

In September 2010, under the leadership of then new President and CEO Jan van de Winkel, the biotech pared back its commercial and clinical development ambitions. Genmab had been seeking to establish its own sales force and was taking internal programs into late-stage development alone...