A Broad Repertoire

Johnson & Johnson wants to halt disease progression in at-risk but pre-symptomatic individuals - a strategy it's calling "disease interception" - but faces the challenge of how to monitor whether a treatment is working in a preventive paradigm. Janssen immunologists are exploring emerging technologies to assess TCR repertoires in patients, which it believes will provide an early read on autoimmune diseases and drug responses well before symptoms emerge.

The pharma is tapping into biotechs and academics to help build its strategy, and forming collaborations with a primary focus on rheumatoid arthritis (RA)...