The Life Sciences team advised Scholar Rock on its strategic collaboration with Gilead Sciences to discover and develop highly specific inhibitors of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) activation for the treatment of fibrotic diseases. In connection with the agreement, Scholar Rock is responsible for antibody discovery and preclinical research through product candidate nomination, after which, Gilead will be responsible for the program’s preclinical and clinical development and commercialization. Scholar Rock retains exclusive worldwide rights to discover, develop, and commercialize certain TGFβ inhibitors for oncology and cancer immunotherapy while Gilead has exclusive options to license worldwide rights to product candidates that emerge from three Scholar Rock TGFβ programs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Scholar Rock will receive $80 million in upfront payments, comprised of $50 million cash and $30 million purchase of Scholar Rock common stock. In addition, Scholar Rock will receive a one-time milestone payment of $25 million upon the successful completion of specific preclinical studies and be eligible to receive up to an additional $1,425 million in potential payments aggregated across all three programs based on the successful achievement of certain research, development, regulatory and commercialization milestones. Scholar Rock would also receive high single-digit to low double-digit tiered royalties on sales of potential future products originating from the collaboration.
Scholar Rock is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines for the treatment of serious diseases in which signaling by protein growth factors plays a fundamental role.
The collaboration team was led by partner Sarah Solomon and included counsel Kathleen Kean and associates Shannyn Henke and Sarah Smith; and the equity team was led by included associate Chloe Pletner. Partners Kingsley Taft (corporate and licensing), James Matarese (corporate) and Julie Tibbets (FDA) also contributed.
For additional details on the collaboration, please read the press release.