Cartography Biosciences has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Gilead Sciences to discover and develop therapies for patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and the most common form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenocarcinoma.
Under the multi-year collaboration, Cartography’s proprietary computational and genomics platform will be utilized to discover and validate novel tumor-selective target antigens and pairs of antigens. Cartography’s ATLAS and SUMMIT platforms integrate single-cell data from a comprehensive healthy reference and tumor atlas – applying target identification algorithms to identify single or pairs of targets that are most specific to the intended target cells and optimized for therapeutic programs. Gilead can opt in on multiple targets identified through this collaboration and will undertake all further research, development, and commercialization of programs against those targets.
“We are excited to partner with Gilead to identify novel and compelling antigen targets using our ATLAS and SUMMIT platforms,” said Kevin Parker, Ph.D., CEO of Cartography Biosciences. “The current target landscape in oncology is growing increasingly crowded and there is an urgent need to provide patients with innovative, targeted medicines. Cartography looks forward to working with Gilead and leveraging the team’s expertise in oncology and drug development to identify tumor-specific targets and target pairs that can lead to transformative therapies for patients.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Cartography will receive an upfront payment of $20 million, with additional near-term preclinical milestones. Cartography is also eligible to receive development, regulatory and commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on net sales for Gilead programs against each optioned target.
