💰 Johnson & Johnson's blood cancer therapy gets U.S. FDA approval

TL;DR

J&J's teclistamab, branded as Tecvayli, is approved for treating adults with multiple myeloma that is hard to treat or has come back after receiving four or more prior lines of certain classes of therapies, the company said.A company spokesperson said the therapy, which will be available on or around Nov. 4, will have a list price of $39,500 per month, with the overall pricing ranging between $355,000 and $395,000 for a nine to 10 month course.Tecvayli is a bispecific antibody, which is engineered to redirect body's immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.The approval, however, comes with a boxed warning for cytokine release syndrome, a condition where the immune system reacts more aggressively than it should, and neurologic toxicity.While there are other approved therapies for treating multiple myeloma such as Abecma from rival Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) and GSK Plc's (GSK.L) Blenrep, many patients see a relapse after stopping treatment, making it an area of significant unmet need that drugmakers can tap into."

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