Analysts at Truist Securities called J&J’s CAR T readout “compelling,” noting that the efficacy figures could position the cell therapy as a formidable competitor to the current standard of care, Gilead’s Yescarta.
Johnson & Johnson’s investigational CAR T therapy JNJ-4496 elicited a treatment response in up to 100% of dosed patients with large B cell lymphoma, posing a challenge to Gilead’s current standard of care Yescarta.
Data from the Phase Ib trial, presented at the 2025 congress of the European Hematology Association on Friday, showed a 100% objective response rate (ORR) in patients with relapsed or refractory disease who had undergone one prior line of therapy. Complete response (CR) in this subgroup was 80%. In patients who had received two or more treatments, JNJ-4496’s ORR and CR rates dipped slightly to 92% and 75%, respectively.
In an investor note on Saturday, Truist Securities called these data “compelling,” noting that they represent an “encouraging step up from the current standard of care, Yescarta.” For instance, in the second-line setting, Yescarta, a CAR T manufactured by Kite, showed a 65% CR, dropping to 36% in the third-line, according to the analysts.
“High CR rates in a cross-trial [comparison] vs Yescarta were observed regardless of prior lines of therapy,” Truist added, however noting that JNJ-4496’s true edge was in safety.
The Phase Ib study documented no cases of grade 3 or 4 cytokine release syndrome, a common adverse effect in immunotherapies. However, 84% of patients developed grade 3 or 4 treatment-emergent serious adverse events, the most of which was neutropenia, or low levels of a type of white blood cell.
“The safety profile appears superior than Yescarta,” according to the Truist analysts, who added that JNJ-4496’s safety at the recommended Phase II dose “shows improvement over 1st gen CAR-Ts.”
Friday’s readout comes as J&J works to maintain its leadership in the CAR T space, particularly as competitor Gilead builds up to a 2026 multiple myeloma launch of anitocabtagene autoleucel (anito-cel), its challenge to J&J and Legend Biotech’s Carvykti. Last month, Gilead’s partner Arcellx disclosed Phase II data showing a 97% ORR for anito-cel in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma at the fourth-line or later setting. CR was 68%.
At the time, BMO Capital Markets wrote that anito-cel’s efficacy was “at a minimum comparable to Carvykti, with potentially better [overall survival] rates.”
JNJ-4496 is an investigational CAR T therapy that came under J&J’s fold in May 2023 when the pharma paid $245 million upfront—and promised an undisclosed amount in milestones, plus tiered royalties—to partner with the Shanghai-based AbelZeta Pharma (which at the time was still named Cellular Biomedicine Group).
The molecule works by binding to both the CD19 and CD20 proteins, both of which are commonly found on malignant B cells, in turn leading to their destruction. According to J&J’s release on Friday, JNJ-4496 also carries a 4-1BB costimulatory domain, which is “intended to enhance binding strength and persistence” and surmount common pathways of treatment resistance.
