Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) announced a partnership on Monday with Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) biotech startup Verily Life Sciences that seeks to better understand three serious inflammatory diseases.
Forbes reported that Gilead will pay up to US$90mln over three years to Verily, to “run a suite of tests” on the white blood cells of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and lupus. The whole idea of running the tests is to screen which patients respond to existing drugs and to try to “discover biological clues” that could lead to new medicines.
“Inflammatory diseases are complex, and despite treatment advances, most patients experience neither deep nor long-lasting remissions,” John McHutchison, chief scientific officer for Gilead, said in a statement.
“We are excited to be collaborating with the scientists at Verily,” he added.
It will be the first large-scale use of Verily's Immunoscape platform to probe immune cells to understand disease signatures and treatment responses and has the potential to guide future drug discovery.
"With the Immunoscape platform, we are seeking to develop a molecular map of inflammatory diseases that will help us identify and characterize disease mechanisms," said Jessica Mega, chief medical officer for Verily.
Gilead is currently conducting clinical trials of several different drugs in rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus-related diseases, all of which are caused when the immune system attacks the body.
Shares of Gilead squeaked US$0.25% higher to US$72.33 on Tuesday despite a broader falling market.