Johnson & Johnson has entered into a strategic agreement with Sail Biomedicines to advance its immune-mediated disease program and technology platform. This collaboration aims to expand the application of Sail’s in vivo CAR-T platform to new therapeutic targets.

Under the terms, Johnson & Johnson will make an equity investment in Sail and has secured an exclusive option to acquire the company for $2.58 billion. John Reed, Johnson & Johnson’s executive vice president of innovative medicine research and development, stated that the partnership is intended to accelerate the development of novel therapies.

The agreement includes initial payments totaling $785 million, comprising a $465 million equity investment and potential contingent payments of $140 million upon achieving specific development milestones. Separately, Johnson & Johnson also finalized its acquisition of Firefly Bio for $1 billion, enhancing its oncology pipeline with the Firelink DAC platform for KRAS-driven tumors.