Gilead Sciences Expands Pipeline with Tubulis Acquisition
Gilead Sciences announced on Tuesday an agreement to acquire Tubulis, a Munich-based startup, for a $3.15 billion upfront cash payment, according to Dealbreaker. The deal includes up to $1.85 billion in additional milestone payments tied to the success of Tubulis’s assets, marking Gilead’s third M&A announcement this year.
Details of the Tubulis Acquisition
Tubulis specializes in developing antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer, with two therapies currently in clinical testing. The company brings platform technologies that produced these ADCs, which Gilead plans to apply beyond oncology, as noted in the financial terms announced Tuesday. Tubulis’s ADCs, such as TUB-040 targeting NaPi2b, are in Phase 1b/2 testing for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, where interim data from last fall showed a 50% overall response rate in 66 evaluable patients, according to Dealbreaker.
Tubulis’s Technologies and Pipeline
Tubulis’s technologies stem from research at the Leibniz Research Institute in Berlin and the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, enabling the creation of more stable ADCs that reduce off-target toxicity. The company’s lead program, TUB-040, targets NaPi2b, a protein highly expressed in ovarian and lung cancers, while TUB-030 targets 5T4 in a basket study across 13 types of solid tumors. Following positive interim data, Tubulis closed a Series C financing round at €344 million, or about $401 million, soon after the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting.
Gilead’s Strategic Business Development
This acquisition builds on Gilead’s existing ADC portfolio, including Trodelvy, acquired through the 2020 purchase of Immunomedics for $21 billion. Gilead had previously partnered with Tubulis in 2024, paying $20 million upfront for collaboration on an ADC program, granting an exclusive option for licensing. According to Dealbreaker, Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day stated that the partnership confirmed Tubulis’s value, potentially expanding Gilead’s pipeline in oncology, immunology, and virology. The company has pursued similar deals this year, including a $7.8 billion acquisition of Arcellx in February and a $1.7 billion deal for Ouro Medicines in March, both including platform technologies for drug development.
