Gilead Sciences and MacroGenics to develop innovative therapies

Gilead Sciences and MacroGenics have announced a new drug development alliance covering the creation of four innovative products.

The collaboration will utilise MacroGenics' Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (Dart) technology to generate bi-specific antibodies against four targets, with Gilead retaining exclusive worldwide rights for three of the resulting products.

Dart technology allows a single recombinant molecule to target two different antigens and has been identified as a highly promising field of development.

Under the terms of the agreement, MacroGenics could receive a total of up to $30 million (18.68 million pounds) in licence fee payments and up to $85 million in preclinical milestones across the four programmes, while clinical, regulatory and commercialisation milestone fees could come to more than $1 billion.

Dr Roy Baynes, senior vice-president for oncology and inflammation therapeutics at Gilead, said: "This partnership underscores Gilead's commitment to developing innovative therapies that address significant unmet medical needs for patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases."

Last month, Gilead announced plans to acquire YM BioSciences, a deal that will help to expand its oncology and inflammation pipeline.