Under the terms of the agreement, Gilead will acquire CGI for up to $120m, the majority as an upfront payment and the remaining based on clinical development progress, all of which will be financed through available cash on hand.
CGI claimed that it has generated a library of proprietary small molecule kinase inhibitors. The preclinical compound from this library targets spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) and could have applications for the treatment of serious inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.
Gilead expects that the deal would close in the third quarter of 2010, subject to satisfaction of certain closing conditions after which CGI is expected to continue operations in Branford as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gilead.
Norbert Bischofberger, executive vice president of R&D and chief scientific officer at Gilead, said: “The acquisition of CGI represents an opportunity to expand our research efforts in an interesting area of drug discovery. We look forward to advancing compounds in CGI’s portfolio toward clinical development.”
Mark Velleca, founder and senior vice president of CGI, said: “We are pleased to join the Gilead organisation and look forward to partnering with the company to deliver the selective kinase inhibitors in our proprietary library of compounds.
“We are confident that Gilead’s knowledge and experience developing small molecule candidates for a range of clinical indications will be instrumental in helping to progress our compounds toward clinical development.”