Gilead Sciences and Goldfinch Bio have entered a collaboration to discover, develop and commercialize a pipeline of therapeutics for diabetic kidney disease (DKD) and certain orphan kidney diseases.
 
Under the multi-year collaboration, Gilead has exclusive options to license worldwide rights to certain products directed toward targets emerging from Goldfinch’s proprietary Kidney Genome Atlas (KGA), a comprehensive registry of patients with kidney diseases integrating genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data with patient clinical profiles. In addition, Goldfinch will apply its biology platform of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived kidney cells and kidney organoids to validate targets and support discovery and development of products to which Gilead will have exclusive option rights.
 
Goldfinch will receive $55 million in upfront payments and an additional $54 million to support the development of the KGA platform for DKD. Goldfinch is also eligible to receive up to $1.95 billion in potential payments for the first five collaboration programs based on the successful achievement of research, development, regulatory and commercial milestones, and tiered royalties on sales of potential products originating from the collaboration.
 
“We are excited to partner with Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company known for its science-driven innovation and productivity,” said Tony Johnson, president and chief executive officer, Goldfinch. “There is significant unmet need to improve health outcomes for patients with kidney diseases. This partnership will leverage Goldfinch’s KGA platform to identify new therapeutic targets and Gilead’s proven track record of efficiently advancing life-saving therapies for patients.”
 
John McHutchison, chief scientific officer and head of research and development, Gilead Sciences, said, “Goldfinch has established unique genetic and biology platforms that will allow for the identification and validation of novel targets for kidney disease and for the discovery and development of novel compounds. We look forward to partnering with our research collaborators at Goldfinch, as we seek to advance novel treatment options for people living with DKD and other serious kidney diseases.”