Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, New Jersey, has snapped up Bay Area-based Alios BioPharma for $1.75 billion in cash. Founded in 2008 by three executives from InterMune, Alios had previously raised $73 million primarily from corporate venture capital arms Novo Ventures, SR One, Roche Venture Fund and Novartis Ventures. The company's pipeline includes AL-8176 to treat respiratory syncytial virus and the nucleotide NS5B polymerase inhibitor VX-135 for the treatment of hepatitis C virus infections, both in phase 2 trials, as well as several preclinical compounds.