A large pharmaceutical company on the West Coast has become the latest to put its money on CRISPR technology’s potential in oncology.
Gilead Sciences and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Tango Therapeutics said Wednesday that they had formed a partnership around immunotherapy treatments for cancers. The discovery, development and commercialization deal will involve Tango performing target discovery and validation, while Gilead will have options to worldwide rights for up to five targets in Tango’s genomics-based discovery platform. Tango will have co-development and co-detail rights to two of the programs for the US, though it will retain all rights for its lead programs.
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According to its pipeline page, Tango uses CRISPR-based screening to find vulnerabilities in specific cancer cells and is able to perform around 20 target discovery screens, validating six to eight targets annually. Its drug-discovery pipeline lists three programs – one directed at multiple solid tumors in the hit-to-lead stage of development, one in BRCA-mutant tumors also in hit-to-lead and one in KRAS-mutant tumors in the hit-finding stage. Clinical proof of concept for the programs is expected in 2021-2022. The company was launched last year with a $55 million Series A financing from Third Rock Ventures.
Under the financial terms of the deal, Tango will receive $50 million upfront and will be eligible for about $1.7 billion in total payments, including pre-clinical fees and development, milestones and royalties. In the programs for which the company chooses to co-develop and co-detail, it and Gilead will split profits and losses half-and-half for the US. The companies will also share development costs, while Tango will additionally be eligible for milestones and royalties on sales outside the US.
A nearby company, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, has also staked a claim in CRISPR, through a partnership with Switzerland-based CRISPR Therapeutics. Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration lifted a clinical hold on its Phase I/II study of CRISPR’s lead candidate, CTX001, in sickle cell disease. Meanwhile, other CRISPR-focused startups have been receiving a steady stream of funding from venture capital firms. Last month, fellow Cambridge firm KSQ Therapeutics closed an $80 million Series C funding round to develop adoptive T-cell, immuno-oncology and targeted therapies using the technology. More recently, CRISPR toolmaker Synthego said last week that it had closed a $110 million Series C round, led by Peter Thiel’s Founder’s Fund.
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