Shenzhen Pregen Biopharma announced a license and collaboration agreement with Kite Pharma, a Gilead company, to support the research and development of next-generation in vivo therapies. Kite will pay Pregene $120 million upfront and provide additional compensation of up to $1.52 billion upon completion of undisclosed milestones, as well as royalties based on the net sales of future products. According to the release, the ultimate goal of the collaboration is to streamline the path from discovery to clinical development for in vivo therapies.

The initial announcement did not specify any specific indications the collaboration planned to investigate, although it broadly pointed to fields like oncology, autoimmune diseases, and areas of “urgent need.” According to the release, Pregene’s CAR-T/CAR-NK/TCR-T drug priority platform has been previously utilized in the development of various autologous and allogeneic cell and gene therapies, as well as biologic product candidates.

“We are excited to collaborate with Kite to help advance their efforts in delivering next-generation in vivo therapies to patients,” said Dr. Zhang Jishuai, CSO and Co-Founder, Pregene Biopharma, in the release. “By combining Kite’s cell therapy expertise with our respective strengths at Pregene, we aim to overcome technical barriers, accelerate proof-of-concept studies, and bring transformative medicines to patients faster, especially in oncology, autoimmune diseases, and other areas where innovation is urgently needed.”