UPDATE 1-J&J says blood cancer drug improves progression-free survival in patients

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Jan 27 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson said on Friday an interim analysis showed its drug Carvykti met the main goal of improving progression-free survival in patients with a type of blood cancer in a late-stage study.

The company is testing Carvykti in multiple myeloma patients, with a history of relapse, who have stopped responding to existing treatment and have received one to three prior therapies.

Carvykti, developed by J&J and its China-focused partner Legend Biotech Corp, was approved by the U.S. health regulator last year based on an early-to mid-stage study to treat relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients who had received four or more prior lines of therapy.

U.S.-listed shares of Legend Biotech were up 2% in early trading.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable blood cancer that affects a type of white blood cell called plasma cells, found in the bone marrow. J&J estimates more than 35,000 people to be diagnosed with the disease in 2023.

Carvykti belongs to a class of drugs known as CAR-T therapies that work by harvesting a patient's own disease-fighting T-cells, genetically engineering them to target specific proteins on cancer cells, and replacing them to seek out and attack cancer. (Reporting by Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Shinjini Ganguli)