J&J announces deals, launches Boston center

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) announced a pair of deals on Thursday, alongside the launch of its Johnson & Johnson Boston Innovation Center. J&J partnered with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital (New York, N.Y.) to investigate triggers of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), identify new opportunities for therapeutic interventions and create diagnostics for therapeutics and to identify predictive biomarkers. The deal brings together J&J's R&D capabilities with Mount Sinai's expertise in computational biology, clinical and translational research. The partners aren't disclosing additional details but said a successful collaboration could represent a "multi-million dollar commitment" each year over a four-year period.

Additionally, J&J's new Boston center partnered with microbiome company Vedanta Biosciences Inc. (Boston, Mass.) to develop therapies that modulate pathways of interaction between the human microbiome and the host immune system. The partners aren't disclosing details of the deal. Vedanta's VE-202, an oral formulation of live Clostridium difficile bacteria to correct the deficiency of normal bacteria that occurs in bowel, is in preclinical testing for IBD. J&J's Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. (JJDC) venture arm made an undisclosed investment in Vedanta. ...