Assembly, J&J deal
Johnson & Johnson's California Innovation Center and J&J's Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. (JJDC) venture arm made an undisclosed investment in Assembly. Assembly's discovery platform is based on its Core Protein Allosteric Modulators (CpAMs). The company is developing treatments for viral infections, starting with HBV infection. J&J said CpAMs are being studied for their potential to become curative rather than suppressive therapies. The pharma also said Assembly's HBV treatment is in preclinical testing.
Assembly is operating out of J&J's Janssen Labs @QB3 incubator. Janssen Labs @QB3 is providing access to QB3 resources, including legal and business advisors, grant-writing assistance and equipment and technology. Last year, J&J said it was expanding its San Diego-based Janssen Labs incubator into San Francisco incubator space owned by the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), a collaboration of the University of California, San Francisco; UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz (see BioCentury, June 10, 2013). ...