Gilead Sciences and Arcus Biosciences announced an expansion of their research partnership, which will now also encompass programs focused on inflammation.
The partnership was first established in 2020, when the two signed a 10-year agreement to co-develop and co-commercialize the next-generation cancer therapeutics in Arcus' pipeline. Now, the partners will leverage Gilead's expertise in drug discovery and development against Arcus' immunology and oncology platform to advance novel therapies for inflammatory diseases.
As part of the expanded collaboration, California-based Arcus will receive an upfront payment of $35 million and initiate research programs for up to four mutually selected inflammatory disease targets. Gilead will have the option to license each program at two predefined time points. If Gilead exercises its option earlier for the first two programs, Arcus could be entitled to up to $420 million in option and milestone payments per program.
