Juno Therapeutics

Juno Therapeutics, Inc. was an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, founded in 2013 through a collaboration among Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children's Research Institute. The company developed adoptive T-cell therapies for cancer, building two complementary engineered-cell platforms: chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), which target antigens expressed on the surface of cancer cells, and high-affinity T-cell receptors (TCRs), which can detect alterations in intracellular proteins in tumor cells. In its approach, T cells are collected from a patient's blood, genetically modified to recognize and bind cancer cells, and infused back into the patient.

Juno initially focused on blood cancers, including leukemia, acute and aggressive lymphomas and B-cell lymphomas, targeting patients with advanced disease who had not responded to chemotherapy, radiation or transplant, with a stated intention to expand into solid tumors. Its lead candidate, JCAR017 (lisocabtagene maraleucel, liso-cel), is an autologous anti-CD19 CAR T-cell immunotherapy with a defined composition of purified CD8+ and CD4+ CAR T cells; it entered pivotal trials for relapsed and/or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and was approved by the U.S. FDA on February 5, 2021 as Breyanzi for adults with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma after at least two prior lines of systemic treatment.

The company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker JUNO. Celgene completed its acquisition of Juno on March 6, 2018, and Juno subsequently became part of Bristol-Myers Squibb following BMS's completion of its Celgene acquisition in November 2019.

Founding story

Juno was formed by three cancer research institutions — Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Seattle Children's Research Institute — that combined their intellectual property in cell-based immunotherapy rather than licensing it separately, with the stated rationale that a commercially funded enterprise could advance T-cell therapies faster than a grant-dependent model. It launched publicly in early December 2013 with $120 million in initial private investment, described at the time as one of the largest Series A rounds in biotechnology history, backed by ARCH Venture Partners and the Alaska Permanent Fund through a partnership managed by Crestline Investors. Hans Bishop, a biotech industry veteran, was named chief executive officer. Founding scientists and founders included Michel Sadelain, Renier Brentjens and Isabelle Rivière of Memorial Sloan Kettering; Larry Corey, Philip Greenberg and Stanley Riddell of Fred Hutchinson; Michael Jensen of Seattle Children's Research Institute; Richard Klausner, former director of the National Cancer Institute; and Robert Nelsen of ARCH Venture Partners.

Business model

Juno operated as a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical developer, funding drug development through venture capital, a public listing and partnerships, and seeking FDA licensure for multiple engineered T-cell product candidates in hematologic and solid tumor cancers. It supplemented internal research with in-licensing, acquisitions of enabling technology companies and large pharmaceutical collaborations, notably a 10-year partnership with Celgene valued at $1 billion under which Celgene gained rights to sell Juno's therapies internationally.

Sources describe upfront and collaboration payments from partners (for example, a $150 million payment from Celgene under the 2015 partnership) and the commercialization pathway for approved cell therapies, but do not detail product revenue figures.

Traction

By the December 2013 launch, roughly two dozen patients across the three founding institutions had been treated with cell-based immunotherapies in clinical trials, with a majority reported in remission, including complete remission in ten of twelve patients with relapsed or refractory leukemia reported by Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers. CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapies were in phase 1/2 trials by August 2014, and JCAR017 was in pivotal DLBCL trials at the time of the Celgene acquisition, with Celgene citing potential global peak sales of approximately $3 billion. Liso-cel was approved by the FDA as Breyanzi in February 2021.

Latest developments

Celgene completed its acquisition of Juno on March 6, 2018 and Juno was delisted from Nasdaq; Bristol-Myers Squibb completed its acquisition of Celgene in November 2019, making Juno a BMS subsidiary. The FDA approved liso-cel (Breyanzi) on February 5, 2021. A 2022 retrospective describes Juno's continuing influence on the Seattle biotechnology cluster through alumni-founded companies.