What Sets Juno Therapeutics Inc Apart In Immunotherapy Space?

Shares of Juno Therapeutics Inc JUNO have performed well since the company got listed on December 19, up more than 50 percent. Hans Bishop, Juno Therapeutics co-founder and CEO, was on CNBC to discuss what differentiates Juno from other companies competing in the immunotherapy space and what promising data exists for new immunotherapy approaches.

“The technology has shown that we have really solved a little bit of the puzzle about how we re-engineer patients’ immune system to recognize cancer and fight cancer. So, the premise ultimately is not just better outcomes, but maybe even avoiding some of the long-term toxicity of the current treatments,” Bishop said.

Populated Sector: How Is Juno Unique?

“Well first of all, I think, it’s a good thing,” Bishop replied.

“It’s a good thing for patients; it’s going to keep everyone on their toes. Our belief is competitive advantage comes from speed of insights, particularly into how you make these technologies work in solid tumors.”

He continued, “This technology, while it’s incredibly promising, the data in Leukemia, for example, are really, really very significant. All that said, it’s very early, and so we believe competitive advantage comes from really understanding the biology and really figuring out how this technology can be applied.”

When Are Results Expected?

“We will have trials in the clinic this year in solid tumors. So, we'll have a trial in Europe […] and we also have trial in ovarian cancer. Se, we are starting to get first read outs.”

“Now, for these first trials, our primary concern is safety and making sure that the antigen target that we are reprogramming the CAR T-cell to see is safe and only attacks the tumor tissue and not healthy tissue. From there we can go on to study efficacy and figure out which patients really benefit from this,” Bishop said.

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