NEW YORK – Gilead Sciences subsidiary Kite Pharma and Arcellx said on Friday that they will jointly develop Arcellx's investigational CAR T-cell therapy, CART-ddBCMA, for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients.
Under the terms of the partnership, the firms will co-develop and co-commercialize the autologous product, which is currently being evaluated in a pivotal Phase II clinical trial dubbed iMMagine-1.
For its part, Arcellx will receive $225 million upfront and a $100 million equity investment, followed by potential additional payments. Gilead and Arcellx will share the costs of clinical trials and of developing and commercializing CART-ddBCMA. In the US, the partners plan to share profits equally, while outside the US, Gilead will commercialize the product and Arcellx will receive royalties. Gilead will be responsible for manufacturing the product.
The CART-ddBCMA therapy involves harvesting patients' T cells, using Arcellx's D-Domain binder to genetically modify them to target the B-cell maturation antigen on the surface of multiple myeloma cells, then reinfusing them as a one-time treatment.