Gilead Sciences and Vir Biotechnology have deepened their ties by inking a second deal, which will see the pair join forces to discover and engineer novel T-cell engager (TCE) therapies for solid tumours.
Through this collaboration and licensing agreement, Gilead will hand over $90m upfront and up to $45m in potential near-term preclinical milestones – alongside a potential $1.74bn in further development, regulatory and commercial milestones – in exchange for the exclusive license to develop and commercialise three dual-masked TCEs. The upfront cost includes both $65m in cash and a $25m equity investment.
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This deal will see Gilead hold the power to nominate and advance a trio of therapeutics generated through the partnership, while the pharma giant will also take the helm in developing, manufacturing and potentially commercialising the fruits of this collaboration, which will all target solid tumour-associated antigens.
At the core of this partnership is Vir’s PRO-XTEN technology, which the company has designed to both extend the half-life of a TCE and prevent the molecule’s activation prior to it reaching the tumour microenvironment.
Through this mechanism, Vir believes that PRO-XTEN-optimised TCEs could offer improved toxicity and dosing schedule compared with current solid tumour-focused offerings.
Once Vir develops a TCE, it then employs its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled dAIsY platform, which the biotech uses to optimise TCEs based on multiple parameters.
“We believe TCEs have a powerful role to play in the future of immunotherapy to treat cancer,” commented Vir’s president and CEO, Marianne De Backer.
“This collaboration with Gilead provides an opportunity to generate multiple differentiated candidates aimed at difficult-to-address solid tumours and to expand the potential impact of our science, while also advancing our own clinical oncology portfolio,” De Backer added.
The latest deal between Gilead and Vir builds on their prior collaborations, which first began in 2021 when the companies joined forces to explore the combinatory potential of their investigational hepatitis B drugs.
Gilead is not the only pharma player to ink a deal with Vir, however, as the company also recently teamed up with Astellas to co-develop and commercialise VIR-5500, a TCE for prostate cancer in Phase I development.
TCEs garner big pharma interest across several disease areas
In recent months, several notable pharma companies have hedged their bets on the potential of TCEs, with companies like GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and UCB all penning deals around the modality over the past year.
While their roots stem from the blood cancer space, many companies are now exploring their promise further afield, with Gilead recently making its first foray into the TCE arena by outlaying $2.2bn to acquire autoimmune TCE developer Ouro Medicines in March.
Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim have taken a similar tack, with both companies forging deals with Kali Therapeutics and CDR-Life, respectively, to secure the rights to trispecific autoimmune-focused TCEs.
Meanwhile, analysts at GlobalData, the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology, recently noted that TCEs are set to disrupt the relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma space in the coming years.
