Pharmaceutical producer Gilead Sciences has agreed to acquire US-based cell therapy developer Cell Design Labs in a deal worth up to $567m to help in the development of cancer drugs.
The transaction includes a 12.2% stake in Cell Design held by Kite Pharma, which Gilead bought for $11.9bn in October this year. Citi acted as financial adviser to Cell Design in the sale.
Both Kite and Cell Design focus on chimeric antigen receptors to reprogram a patient’s T cells to try and transform them into cancer-fighting agents, called CAR-T immunotherapies.
Cell Design’s pipeline includes early-stage treatments for prostate cancer and a type of blood cancer.
Gilead said it would make an initial upfront payment to US-based Cell Design of about $175m, and additional payments of up to $322m if certain milestones are achieved.
Cell Design’s sole funding consisted of a $34.4m round closed in June 2016 that was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and backed by Kite, Osage University Partners, Mission Bay Ventures and management including Arie Belldegrun, its CEO.
John Milligan, Gilead’s president and CEO, said: “This acquisition demonstrates our deep commitment to continuing to invest in future innovation in the field of cellular therapy, both internally and externally.”
Wendell Lim, scientific founder of Cell Design and chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, added: “Our growing understanding of molecular networks now allows us to engineer cells with novel behaviors, including therapeutic immune cells programmed to precisely recognise and treat cancer.”