We aim to reduce the burden, disability and devastation caused by serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative and neurological autoantibody-driven diseases. In 2023, we further advanced significant neuroscience solutions to improve lives:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
Scientific advances have revealed that AD begins with the abnormal accumulation of two proteins—amyloid and tau—15 – 20 years before symptoms manifest. There are an estimated 315 million people globally with preclinical AD,22 meaning that pathological changes have begun in the brain, but they are not showing any symptoms. In partnership with AC Immune, we are progressing a potentially first-in-class tau active immunotherapy for patients with AD with a Phase 2b clinical trial beginning this year. We aim to demonstrate that tau active immunotherapy can prevent or slow progression of tau pathology and onset of clinical symptoms in patients with preclinical AD who have yet to show signs of disease.
Treatment-resistant depression
Results from our long-term clinical trial comparing SPRAVATO (esketamine) CIII nasal spray with a commonly prescribed oral antipsychotic, both in combination with an oral antidepressant, in patients with treatment-resistant depression found those who received SPRAVATO were 1.54 times more likely to reach remission after eight weeks compared to those who received the antipsychotic.
The German Federal Ministry of Health recently designated SPRAVATO as a Major Added Benefit, meaning SPRAVATO showed a sustained and substantial improvement not previously achieved by standard of care. SPRAVATO is the only psychiatry therapy to receive this benefit since the introduction of the assessment in 2011.
These studies build on J&J’s more than 60-year legacy of pioneering innovation in neuropsychiatry. SPRAVATO is the first new mechanism of action in more than three decades to treat two challenging types of depression in adults in combination with an oral antidepressant: patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder and depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder with suicidal thoughts or actions.”
Generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG)
We are making significant progress in addressing the unmet needs of people living with generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG), a rare, debilitating autoantibody disease for which limited treatment options are available. Many patients fail to adequately respond to currently available treatments, creating the need for more targeted therapies with better efficacy and tolerability. In 2023, positive results of a Phase 2 study of nipocalimab in patients with gMG were published in Neurology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Academy of Neurology, showing a rapid and sustained clinical response over placebo.
In December 2023, we held an Enterprise Business Review, where Company leaders shared a detailed review of our Innovative Medicine and MedTech businesses and their respective pipelines, and discussed our long-term strategy to deliver value for our stakeholders and better health outcomes.
22 Gustavsson A., Norton N., Fast T., et al., “Global estimates on the number of persons across the Alzheimer’s disease continuum,” Alzheimer’s Association, https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/alz.12694, accessed February 2024.
