Janssen Biotech, the Johnson & Johnson sub­sid­i­ary that mar­kets the myeloma ther­apy Darzalex globally, has decided to halt two clin­i­cal trials testing the drug in com­bi­na­tion with other cancer treat­ments.

One of the Darzalex trials involves patients with pre­vi­ously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, while the other trial involves patients with re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Genmab, the Danish com­pany that initially devel­oped Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) before licensing it to Janssen, announced news of the trial can­cel­la­tions this past Saturday.

Genmab reported that, in the lung cancer trial, no benefit was seen …

• Based on a recent planned review, the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC) rec­om­mends Phase Ib/II study of dara­tu­mu­mab plus atezo­lizu­mab (anti PD-L1 anti­body) in patients with pre­vi­ously treated non-small cell lung cancer to be terminated.
• Phase I MMY2036 study of dara­tu­mu­mab plus JNJ-63723283 (anti PD-1 anti­body) in patients with multiple myeloma, dis­con­tinued
• Health Authorities have been informed about these events and Janssen has contacted its partner com­panies conducting dara­tu­mu­mab and anti-PD-(L)1 com­bi­na­tion studies to discuss ceasing enrollment and dosing of the com­bi­na­tion while the data is being further in­ves­ti­gated

Copenhagen, Denmark (Press Release) – Genmab A/S (Nasdaq Copenhagen: GEN) announced today that fol­low­ing a planned review, the DMC has rec­om­mended that the Phase Ib/II study (CALLISTO/LUC2001) of dara­tu­mu­mab in com­bi­na­tion with atezo­lizu­mab versus atezo­lizu­mab mono­therapy in patients with previ­ously treated ad­vanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer should be terminated. In addi­tion the phase I MMY2036 study of dara­tu­mu­mab plus JNJ-63723283, an anti PD-1 anti­body in patients with multiple myeloma will be dis­con­tinued.

The DMC de­ter­mined that there was no observed benefit within …