- Geron (GERN +6.4%) heads north on increased volume in response to its announcement of a license deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals (JNJ +0.2%). The company has granted Janssen exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize products based on Geron's specialized oligonucleotide backbone chemistry in addition to RNA interference candidates for the treatment of all human disorders except blood and bone marrow cancers and exclusive of telomerase inhibitors.
- Geron has also granted Janssen a non-exclusive global license to develop and commercialize oligonucleotides based on Geron's patents covering the synthesis of monomers (building blocks of oligonucleotides). Janssen Biotech has non-exclusive rights to the same intellectual property under their November 2014 imetelstat agreement.
- Under the terms of the deal, Geron will receive an upfront payment of $5M, up to $75M in milestones and low-single-digit royalties on global net sales of each licensed product.