The Yale School of Medicine and Gilead Sciences have recently announced a three-year extension of the research collaboration that has focused on the development of novel therapies for cancer since its inception in 2011. With the guarantee of additional funding for ensuing research, the renewal agreement promises to expand on the work thus far produced by their collaborative efforts.
The renewal is one of multiple expansions of the original, tentative ten-year framework envisaged in 2011. In addition to the $40 million and infrastructure provided by Gilead in the first deal, the renewal allocates another $30 million to research support. This is but a portion of the projected $100 million included in the proposed ten-year plan. Yale, in return, will grant Gilead the first option to license whatever inventions may result from the collaboration.
Having achieved significant progress in their cancer research, Yale and Gilead now seek to further the current understanding of the genetic basis and molecular mechanisms of various cancers. It is a remarkable feat that the collaboration has already led to the successful sequencing of the genomes of certain cancers; these findings provide unprecedented insight into the processes by which cancers progress. Furthermore, Yale and Gilead’s pharmacological approaches have produced promising results in identifying therapeutic molecular compounds.
If these successes are indicative of the future, much can be expected, as the partnership shifts its emphasis to the development of a single treatment for multiple cancers. With their complementary teams, oncology has much to gain from the joint efforts of Yale and Gilead.
