Gilead Sciences acquires minority interest in Tizona Therapeutics Inc.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced that it will invest $300 million to acquire a 49.9 percent equity interest in Tizona Therapeutics Inc., a privately held company developing first-in-class cancer immunotherapies. Gilead will also receive an exclusive option to acquire the remainder of Tizona for up to an additional $1.25 billion, including an option exercise fee and potential future milestone payments. Gilead can exercise its option to acquire the remainder of Tizona following the readout of a Phase 1b study of Tizona’s investigational antibody, TTX 080, or earlier if Gilead decides to do so. TTX 080, discovered by Tizona, is a potential first-in-class medicine that targets HLA-G, a novel and emerging immune checkpoint expressed across multiple tumor types. The expression pattern of HLA-G often appears distinct from that of PD-(L)1, suggesting potential utility to address tumors that do not respond to current anti-PD-(L)1 treatments and to deepen responses in tumors that are sensitive to anti-PD-(L)1 therapies. The FDA has cleared Tizona’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for TTX 080, and in the third quarter of this year, Tizona plans to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating TTX 080 both as a monotherapy and in combination with other agents in patients with advanced cancers.