California-based Kite, a global biopharmaceutical company owned by Gilead Sciences Inc., recently entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Philadelphia-based Interius BioTherapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company, for $350 million.
Kite will acquire all of Interius’ outstanding share capital, payable at closing. After closing, Interius’s employees and operations will integrate into Kite’s research team. The combined operations will create a center of excellence in Philadelphia focused on the development of next-generation in vivo therapies.
“This marks a pivotal step for Interius and the future of in vivo therapy, which has the potential to reduce treatment timelines, broaden access to care and improve outcomes for patients with aggressive or advanced disease,” Phil Johnson, Interius BioTherapeutics president and CEO, said. “With the addition of Kite’s deep expertise and global infrastructure, we’re well-positioned to move quickly into multiple therapeutic areas, expand access to cell therapies and deliver meaningful innovation to patients.”
Interius’s in vivo platform enables the generation of ex vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells directly within the patient’s body. The approach inserts DNA into the patient’s genome. Traditional CAR T therapies that require cell harvesting, engineering and reinfusion.
Interius BioTherapeutics engineers targeted, programmable vectors for the precision delivery of genetic medicines.
Kite is focused on achieving cures with cell therapy.