Gilead Sciences has acquired XinThera in an effort to bolster its oncology and inflammation pipeline, the company announced Tuesday.
The acquisition will give Gilead access to XinThera’s portfolio of two small molecule inhibitor programs — one that targets PARP1 in cancer while the other targets MK2 in inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
Gilead’s transaction seeks to further expand its early pipeline of diverse assets and fuel its late-phase drug portfolio.
“The team at XinThera has developed research assets with the potential to target the DNA damage repair pathway in treating cancer and direct the body’s immune response in inflammatory diseases, both of which may improve outcomes for people living with these diseases,” Flavius Martin, EVP of research at Gilead, said in a statement.
The XinThera acquisition is the latest in a series of significant buys for Gilead.
In February, Kite — a unit of Gilead — bought Tmunity Therapeutics, along with its pre-clinical and clinical programs and “armored” CAR T technology platform. That came shortly after Gilead and Kite snapped up Arcellx’s CART-ddBCMA program for $225 million in cash and $100 million in equity.
The pharma also bought up Jounce Therapeutics’ immunotherapy GS-1811 for $645 million last year.
The company is banking on the potential of PARP1 selective inhibitors, which have shown some efficacy in treating tumors in breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers while avoiding the hematological toxicities often caused by first-generation, dual PARP1/2 inhibitors.
XinThera CEO Chris LeMasters noted in a statement that both companies share a mission “to discover new therapies to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases, which drive our determination to unlock the body’s ability to better respond to these diseases.”
Gilead has increased its focus on oncology in recent months, which along with its extensive HIV offerings has helped lift its revenues by 2% after the company reported a drop in Q1 2023.
However, Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day noted the company’s HIV franchise will be its foundation moving into the future — in particular, its PrEP drugs.
O’Days comments come as Gilead is facing off with the government in federal court this month over claims that it owes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a share of its HIV prevention profits.
The government wants Gilead to pay $1 billion over an alleged failure to compensate the CDC for its work in discovering that Truvada could prevent HIV. Last year, Gilead brought in $2 billion in sales for its HIV prevention drugs Truvada and Descovy.
