Gilead Collaboration with Sangamo

Kite, a Gilead Company, and Sangamo Therapeutics Announce Collaboration to Develop Next-Generation Engineered Cell Therapies for Cancer

Kite, a Gilead (GILD) company, and Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) announced a worldwide collaboration agreement for using Sangamo’s zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology platform for the development of next-generation ex vivo cell therapies in oncology.

Kite will use Sangamo’s ZFN technology to modify genes to develop next-generation cell therapies for autologous and allogeneic use in treating different cancers. Allogeneic cell therapies from healthy donor cells or from renewable stem cells would provide a potential treatment option that can be accessed directly within the oncology infusion center, thus reducing the time to infusion for patients.

The Terms of the Agreement

– Sangamo will receive an upfront payment of $150 million

– Sangamo is eligible to receive up to $3.01 billion in potential payments, aggregated across 10 or more products utilizing Sangamo’s technology, based on the achievement of certain research, development, regulatory and successful commercialization milestones.

– Sangamo would also receive tiered royalties on sales of potential future products resulting from the collaboration.

– Kite will be responsible for all development, manufacturing, and commercialization of products under the collaboration, and will be responsible for agreed upon expenses incurred by Sangamo.

The enthusiasm about the collaboration is expressed by both Sangamo and Gilead as follows:  

From Sangamo, Sandy Macrae, President and Chief Executive Officer of the firm said, “This collaboration between Kite and Sangamo brings together two leading platforms to develop best-in-class cell therapies in oncology. We are excited by Kite’s commitment to driving innovation in this field and look forward to working together to realize the full promise of cell therapy in treating cancer.”

From Gilead, John F. Milligan, Ph.D., Gilead’s President and Chief Executive Officer stated, “The emergence of gene editing as a tool to edit immune cells holds promise in the development of therapies with potentially improved safety, efficacy, and efficiency. We believe Sangamo’s zinc finger nucleases provide the optimal gene-editing platform, and we look forward to working with Sangamo to accelerate our efforts to develop next-generation autologous cell therapies, as well as allogeneic treatments that can be accessed more conveniently in the hospital setting for people living with cancer.”

This transaction is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other customary closing conditions.  A Current Report on Form 8-K describing the proposed transaction in more detail will be filed by Sangamo, and this press release is subject to further detail provided in Sangamo’s 8-K.

Sangamo’s conference call today, February 22, 2018, started at 8:00 a.m. ET. It is open to the public to discuss the details of the collaboration and the Company’s fourth quarter and full year 2017 business and financial results. The call is accessed via a link on the Sangamo Therapeutics website in the Investors and Media section under Events and Presentations.

A replay of the webcast will also be available for one week after the call.

Sangamo stock is currently trading in premarket at $24, UP $2.00

Prohost Comments

There is no doubt that Gilead liked and trusted Sangamo’s gene editing technology. We remind our subscribers the main topic of the Prohost article “In the Limelight”, posted on February 19, 2018, just a few days ago, was almost all about Sangamo and its technological capabilities. If you missed this issue, please go to the Prohost website and click on “The Week in Review”.

We will inform our subscribers of the detailed collaboration as we hear it and as we digest it.       

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