Getting your player ready...
TRENTON, N.J. — Health care giant Johnson & Johnson is jumping into the increasingly hot vaccine business by taking an 18 percent stake in Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV and focusing more on preventive medicine.
Under the terms announced Monday, Johnson & Johnson is spending $440 million for new shares of Crucell in a deal focused initially on developing a universal vaccine or treatment against influenza from Crucell’s genetically engineered antibody technology.
A universal flu vaccine — one that would work against all or most strains rather than having to be reformulated every flu season — has been an elusive goal some other pharmaceutical companies have abandoned.
