Gilead Sciences has entered into three multi-year collaborations with San Diego-based Tentarix Biotherapeutics to develop therapies for cancer and inflammatory diseases.
The collaborations will leverage Tentarix’s proprietary Tentacles platform to discover and develop multi-functional, conditional protein therapeutics. Designed to enhance both therapeutic benefit and safety, these molecules have the potential to conditionally target immune cells related to disease pathways without activating other immune cells that may create adverse events.
Across the three collaborations, Tentarix will receive upfront payments and an equity investment from Gilead totaling $66 million. In addition, Gilead has the option to acquire up to three select Tentarix subsidiaries containing the programs developed under the collaborations for $80 million per subsidiary.
A newly launched startup, Tentarix raised $50 million in funding from Versant Ventures and Samsara BioCapital back in October 2021.
