Geron Corporation (NASDAQ:GERN) shares went gangbusters on Friday as one of its partners — Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) — announced a job position that is linked with the pricing of a drug that the two companies have been developing and marketing together.
The position is for an European Medicines Agency (EMEA) Strategic Pricing Manager, who will be responsible for setting the price for GRN163L (Imetelstat), a drug that targets certain types of cancer. The two companies entered a licensing and collaboration agreement in 2014 to develop and commercialize the drug.
The Johnson & Johnson position reads:
This is a highly strategic role within the EMEA HEMAR team that will be responsible for managing a cutting-edge portfolio of products that can transform the lives of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), Follicular Lymphoma (FL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). As well as leading pricing for Imbruvica, one of Janssen’s key growth drivers over the coming years, the role will also be accountable for shaping our pricing approach for Imetelstat.
Johnson & Johnson later told Bloomberg that the job posting is not connected with its licensing deal with Geron.
GERN stock was up about 28.77% by day’s end Friday following the news, while JNJ stock gained 0.6% at the closing of the market.
