For the first time, Johnson & Johnson has reported sales numbers for its novel multiple myeloma treatment Tecvayli and they indicate that the bispecific, which was approved in October 2022, is off to a solid launch.
In the first quarter, Tecvayli generated $133 million in revenue, compared to $63 million in sales in the first quarter of last year. Also of note was that $101 million of Tecvayli’s first-quarter sales came in the United States, where the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) targeting agent can be used after four previous treatments. In Europe, it's allowed after three other therapies.
Tecvayli’s sales were up sequentially from $112 million in the third quarter of 2023 and $126 million in the fourth quarter.
“We’re seeing very strong uptake and rapid adoption whether we’re in the U.S., Germany, Austria, France—the major markets that have launched to date,” Jennifer Taubert, J&J innovative medicines chief, said during a conference call. “As the first and we believe best-in-class, off-the-shelf BCMA bispecific, we really believe that therapy is offering deep and durable responses.”
Virtually all the news J&J reported from its multiple myeloma franchise was positive, with Taubert calling it a “true stronghold for us.”
Mainstay Darzalex, which is approaching a decade on the market, continued its strong growth trajectory with a 21% increase year over year to $2.7 billion for the quarter. Its sales also were up 5.5% sequentially. Most of the growth came in the front-line setting, Taubert added.
J&J also reported positive momentum for multiple myeloma cell therapy Carvykti, which posted sales of $157 million, which was up from $72 million year over year.
“There’s always questions on how we are doing on expanding our capacity,” Taubert said. “We have doubled our manufacturing capacity since the beginning of 2023 for cell processing. We are continuing to work on our Ghent (Belgium) facility to have that as a secondary source of supply. We’ve brought on some contract manufacturers and we have completely transformed and expanded lentivirus production so that is not a rate-limiting step.”
As for Carvykti failing to top the previous quarter sales of $159 million, Taubert chalked it up to “phasing and timing of orders,” adding that “there was nothing to see there.”
Additionally, J&J said that the launch of another multiple myeloma bispecific, Talvey, which was approved in August of last year, is progressing well.
For the quarter overall, J&J’s sales reached $21.4 billion, which were up 2.3% year over year and 7.6% when eliminating the impact of COVID vaccine sales. The company’s medical devices sector did some heavy lifting in the quarter, with sales up 6.3% compared to a 1% increase in sales in the pharma sector.
J&J also narrowed its 2024 guidance to a range of $88 billion to $88.4 billion versus a prior window of $87.8 billion to $88.6 billion.