Gilead snaps up Sprint’s TREX1 immunotherapy programme for $400m

Gilead Sciences has secured the rights to Sprint Bioscience’s preclinical oncology programme for up to $400m, sending Sprint’s banal soaring by much than 110%.

This woody volition spot Gilead manus implicit $14m upfront for the three-prime repair exonuclease 1 (TREX1) blocker, which constitutes a caller immunotherapy approach.

Through the agreement, Sprint could spot up to $386m successful regulatory, commercialized and milestone payments, taking the deal’s full information up to $400m.

In a 24 November statement, Sprint’s CEO Johan Emilsson noted that the institution chose to merchantability the programme truthful that the biotech tin “shift toward much flexible, value-driven exit opportunities”.

Gilead’s caller plus works by inhibiting the TREX1 protein, an exonuclease that plays a cardinal relation successful DNA replication and repair. While aberrant forms of the TREX1 macromolecule are commonly associated with autoimmune diseases, these proteins besides look to play immoderate relation successful crab pathology.

According to Sprint, the inhibition of TREX1 done its preclinical programme tin amplify the immune effect portion inhibiting the further maturation of tumour cells.

The institution has proved this successful the successful vivo setting, with preclinical information revealing that blocking TREX1 tin boost benignant I interferon signalling, portion dampening tumour growth.

It appears that the woody has enactment Sprint connected the radar of definite investors, arsenic the company's stock worth changeable up by 118% from $0.66 astatine marketplace adjacent connected 21 November to $1.55 astatine marketplace unfastened connected 24 November.

This plus acquisition is not the archetypal Gilead has made successful the oncology assemblage this year, having signed six deals successful the denotation successful 2025, according to GlobalData’s Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center.

GlobalData is the genitor institution of Pharmaceutical Technology.

This includes a licensing statement with biotech Kymera Therapeutics, which saw the US pharma manus implicit $750m for the company’s ‘adhesive’ crab cause successful June 2025.

In August 2025, Gilead subsidiary Kite Therapeutics made a bid to heighten its innovative crab portfolio by acquiring in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) specialist, Interius BioTherapeutics, for $350m.

Across the wider pharma landscape, oncology remains a cardinal target, with the denotation being progressive successful the highest fig of deals, with 2,707 deals truthful acold successful 2025.

The astir invaluable woody was signed by Abbott Laboratories, which precocious stake connected precision oncology diagnostics with its $23bn acquisition of Exact Sciences.

GSK has besides signed a woody for up to $12bn with Chinese biotech Hengrui Pharma, which volition spot the 2 companies collaborate connected the improvement of up to 12 medicines crossed aggregate therapeutic areas, including oncology.