Kite, a Santa Monica, CA-based Gilead Company (Nasdaq: GILD), acquired Tmunity Therapeutics, a Philadelphia, PA-based clinical-stage, private biotech company.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023, and after closing, Tmunity’s employees will join Kite. Closing of the transaction is subject to expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act and other customary conditions.
The acquisition will provide Kite with pre-clinical and clinical programs, including an ‘armored’ CAR T technology platform, which potentially could be applied to a variety of CAR T’s to enhance anti-tumor activity, as well as rapid manufacturing processes. Tmunity’s prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) assets are not part of the Kite acquisition and will be spun-out by Tmunity as part of the transaction.
As part of the acquisition, Kite will assume responsibility for continuing the research and development collaboration between Tmunity and Penn, also known as the Amended Research License Agreement (ARLA), which includes research funding to Penn along with options and licenses to certain cell engineering and manufacturing technologies invented and developed in certain Penn laboratories. Upon closing, the ARLA will be extended until 2026 with an option to extend further.
As part of Kite’s acquisition, the Tmunity founders will become senior scientific advisors for Kite.
Formed in 2015 by some of the early innovators in the cell therapy field, the University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. June, Bruce Levine, PhD, James Riley, PhD and Anne Chew, PhD., Tmunity is a private, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on advancing CAR-T therapies by developing engineered T-cell therapies, innovative manufacturing process and technologies. Programs are multi-armored with broader therapeutic-index to benefit patients with hematologic malignancies and advanced solid tumors, including those who have relapsed after receiving CAR-T treatment. Integrating the research and development collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) with the expertise and demonstrated track record of its founders with Tmunity teams’ scientific experience enables efficient implementation of insights in T-cell engineering, manufacturing, clinical development and patient management.
Drs. June, Levine, Riley, and Chew are all individual equity holders in Tmunity and as part of this agreement will become paid scientific advisors to Kite.
Led by CEO Christi Shaw, Kite is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on cell therapy to treat and potentially cure cancer. Kite has a large in-house cell therapy manufacturing network, spanning process development, vector manufacturing, clinical trial production and commercial product manufacturing.
FinSMEs
21/12/2022