{"id":501986,"date":"2024-01-30T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T16:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/gilead-deepens-investment-in-arcus-and-tigit-drugs\/"},"modified":"2024-01-30T19:30:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T00:30:51","slug":"gilead-deepens-investment-in-arcus-and-tigit-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/gilead-deepens-investment-in-arcus-and-tigit-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilead deepens investment in Arcus and TIGIT drugs","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/gilead-deepens-investment-in-arcus-and-tigit-drugs.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<h3>Dive Brief:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Gilead has bought a bigger stake in cancer drug developer Arcus Biosciences, <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gilead.com\/news-and-press\/press-room\/press-releases\/2024\/1\/gilead-and-arcus-announce-amended-collaboration-and-equity-investment\">announcing Monday<\/a> it will spend $320 million to own 33% of the company and help speed development of an experimental immunotherapy.<\/li>\n<li>With the transaction, the two companies committed to accelerating two trials of Arcus\u2019 drug domvanalimab, which targets a protein called TIGIT, alongside a so-called PD-1 inhibitor and chemotherapy in lung and gastrointestinal cancer. Simultaneously, they are terminating an existing trial of domvanalimab and the PD-1 drug, zimberelimab, in lung cancer.<\/li>\n<li>Gilead and Arcus said the investment \u201creflects the companies\u2019 continued conviction in the TIGIT pathway,\u201d an area of research that so far has not lived up to expectations. TIGIT-targeting drugs developed by Merck &amp; Co. and Roche fell short in early trials, although <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/roche-tigit-tiragolumab-skyscraper-leaked-results\/691603\/\">Roche\u2019s has more shown promise<\/a> recently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dive Insight:<\/h3>\n<p>Gilead\u2019s investment increases its stake in Arcus from 20%. The California-based drugmaker also gets three seats on Arcus\u2019 board, up from two, and won \u201cgovernance enhancements enabling streamlined decision-making and reflecting the continued growth of the collaboration,\u201d according to a Monday evening statement.<\/p>\n<p>For Arcus, the deal adds one year\u2019s worth of funding, exending its cash runway into 2027. It also will provide the resources to fund research on drugs that aren\u2019t partnered with Gilead.<\/p>\n<p>Drugmakers have looked at TIGIT as a promising new immune pathway to build on the cancer-fighting power of the PD-1 targeting drugs like Merck\u2019s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb\u2019s Opdivo.<\/p>\n<p>PD-1 is a \u201ccheckpoint\u201d expressed on immune cells that can forestall the body\u2019s response to cancer cells. Blocking it can help those immune cells find and attack a tumor. TIGIT is also associated with suppression of the body\u2019s immune response, and researchers have hoped inhibiting its activity would similarly aid in checking cancer\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n<p>So far, drugmakers have largely tested TIGIT drugs in combination with PD-1 agents, but with mixed results. Recent Roche data in combination with the approved PD-L1 drug Tecentriq suggested promise in non-small cell lung cancer. On the other hand, Merck reported that a coformulation of Keytruda plus its experimental TIGIT-targeting drug <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/merck-keytruda-combination-trials-fail-patent-cliff\/701975\/\">failed to improve on chemotherapy<\/a> in late-stage patients.<\/p>\n<p>In announcing the deal, Gilead and Arcus said they will end a trial called ARC-10 that was testing domvanalimab and zimberelimab in lung cancer, instead favoring studies of those two immunotherapies on top of chemo.<\/p>\n<p>After speaking with Arcus executives, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Li Watsek wrote in a note to clients that the \u201cdecision to discontinue ARC-10 was not based on internal data of any kind, and was strategic in nature to better reallocate resources\u201d to the chemotherapy combination trials.<\/p>\n<p>However, Watsek added, \u201cwe expect investors to raise questions around clinical risks, given a lack of clinical data supporting the triplet regimen\u201d of the two immunotherapies plus chemo.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"plato-post-bottom-links\">\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-amplifi\">SEO Powered Content &amp; PR Distribution. <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amplifipr.com\">Get Amplified Today.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-platodata-network\">PlatoData.Network Vertical Generative Ai. 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Biotech and Clinical Trials Intelligence. <a href=\"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Access Here.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"plato-post-bottom-link-source\"><span>Source:<\/span> <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/gilead-arcus-tigit-stake-invest-cancer-drug\/705981\/\">https:\/\/www.biopharmadive.com\/news\/gilead-arcus-tigit-stake-invest-cancer-drug\/705981\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dive Brief: Gilead has bought a bigger stake in cancer drug developer Arcus Biosciences, announcing Monday it will spend $320 million to own 33% of the company and help speed development of an experimental immunotherapy. With the transaction, the two companies committed to accelerating two trials of Arcus\u2019 drug domvanalimab, which targets a protein called [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":2,"featured_media":501989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"acf":[],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501986"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501988,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501986\/revisions\/501988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}