Arcellx Stock Surges as Gilead Adds to Stake, Expands Collaboration

Gilead Sciences
is devoting another $200 million to its existing partnership with
Arcellx,
the biotechnology companies said Wednesday.

Kite, a Gilead (ticker: GILD) company, has exercised an option to negotiate a license for
Arcellx
‘s ARC-SparX program, ACLX-001, in multiple myeloma. The companies said they also expanded the scope of their collaboration for Arcellx’s CART-ddBCMA to include lymphomas.

Following an initial $100 million equity investment last year, Gilead will purchase an additional 3.24 million shares of Arcellx common stock at $61.68 a share in a transaction expected to close around the end of this year. Arcellx shares closed at $47.47 on Tuesday.

The new investment is “is expected to extend the company’s cash runway into 2027,” and will bring Gilead’s estimated ownership of Arcellx to 13%. Arcellx will also receive an upfront cash payment of $85 million at closing and will be eligible for potential milestone payments.

Arcellx shares jumped 9.2% on Wednesday while Gilead was up 0.4%.

Write to Emily Dattilo at [email protected]

Read the full article here