Kite, a Gilead Company and Shoreline Biosciences announced a strategic partnership to develop novel cell therapies across a variety of cancer targets.

The collaboration will leverage Shoreline’s expertise in iPSC differentiation and genetic reprogramming in combination with Kite’s cell therapy development, commercialisation and manufacturing expertise to develop novel allogeneic candidates for a range of hematologic malignancies. The collaboration will focus initially on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) NK targets, with Kite having an option to expand the collaboration to include an iPSC CAR Macrophage program for an undisclosed target to be selected post-deal execution. This agreement follows Kite’s investment in Shoreline’s recent Series A financing.

Mert Aktar, Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Kite said, “We are excited about the potential of Shoreline’s next-generation approach to allogeneic development, and how our collaboration can accelerate this research across different leukaemias and lymphomas.”

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Shoreline Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO said, “The combined strength of Kite’s leadership in CAR T-cell therapies and our cutting-edge iPSC platform will potentially accelerate Shoreline’s timeline to the clinic, expand our pipeline opportunities and deliver transformational treatment options for cancer.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Shoreline will receive an upfront payment and will be eligible to receive additional payments totalling over $2.3 billion as well as royalties based on the achievement of certain development and commercial milestones.