Gilead expanded its contract with Tango Therapeutics, seeking to further pursue the collaborative development and commercialization of immuno-oncology treatments.
Gilead partnered with the Cambridge, Mass.-based drugmaker in 2018 to work with five of its immuno-oncology targets. The deal signed Aug. 17 expands the partnership to include 15 targets, and Gilead will have worldwide rights to direct programs centered on these targets for seven years.
The deal gives Gilead the option to pay extension fees for Tango to manage operations through early clinical development. It also gives Tango the option to co-develop and co-promote the effort's leading products for up to five programs in the U.S.
Gilead will pay $125 million upfront, as well as pay Tango a $20 million equity investment. It can opt in to up to 15 programs over the seven-year period, paying up to $410 million per program.
"Since we signed the original agreement two years ago, we have been very pleased with the productivity of the collaboration and with the quality of scientific discovery that has come from this partnership," said William Lee, PhD, Gilead's executive vice president of research. "We are looking forward to working with Tango to run additional cancer context dependent screens to identify a broader set of targets based on our immuno-oncology strategy."