Aiming to become what CEO Milind Deshpande called "part of the inner circle" in hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapies, Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. sealed a potential $1.1 billion deal with Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., plus an equity investment of $225 million from the pharma heavyweight, which already has a footprint in the disease with Olysio (simeprevir), an NS3/4A protease inhibitor (PI) first cleared by the FDA in 2013.