Gilead Sciences has returned the rights to a cancer candidate it licensed from Arcus Biosciences in a $725 million, multiprogram deal, confirming its retreat from an asset that was deprioritized earlier this year.
After the market closed Wednesday, Arcus revealed Gilead returned the license to etrumadenant, an adenosine A2a/A2b receptor antagonist, in June. The news arrived three months after Arcus said it had opted against advancing into phase 3 following talks with the FDA about data on etrumadenant in third-line metastatic colorectal cancer.
The talks confirmed a potential path to market for the drug candidate, Arcus said. However, as Arcus CEO Terry Rosen, Ph.D., told analysts on an earnings call in May, “our plans right now are not to move forward at this time, at least.”
Gilead continued to list etrumadenant in its pipeline after Arcus dropped plans for a phase 3. However, Gilead has said little about the program this year and quietly handed back the license in June, a move Arcus revealed in its second-quarter earnings. Arcus reported a cumulative catch-up to revenue of $143 million relating to the return of the license and the pausing of development.
The return of the license closes off one of Gilead’s chances of generating a return on its big bet on Arcus. Gilead secured an option on assets including etrumadenant in 2020. Eighteen months later, the company paid $725 million to take up its option on etrumadenant and other clinical-phase programs, including Arcus’ anti-TIGIT antibody domvanalimab. Gilead let its option on casdatifan lapse earlier this year.
The Big Biotech still has licenses to domvanalimab and the other two assets from the $725 million deal, namely another TIGIT molecule and the CD73 inhibitor quemliclustat. Gilead also retains a license to zimberelimab, the anti-PD-1 antibody that was covered by the original agreement in 2020. A phase 3 trial of quemliclustat became an independent Arcus study as part of tweaks to the deal early last year.