Astellas sells certain U.S. research facilities to Gilead

Japan’s Astellas Pharma and Kite Pharma, a Gilead Sciences subsidiary announced that an agreement has been completed for the transfer of certain Agensys research facilities in Santa Monica, California, USA, to Kite.

The asset transfer was completed on April 12, 2018. However, earlier this year it had been rumored that Gilead had bid $135 million for the site.

The facilities transfer is part of the wind-down process of the Agensys research operations, as announced by Astellas on July 27, 2017.

Additional wind-down activities were completed in the first quarter of calendar year 2018, following the company’s decision to further refine its oncology strategy by expanding its investment in the research in new technologies and modalities and reducing its focus on antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) research, which was the core focus of work conducted at Agensys.

Astellas will continue certain clinical trials and collaborations on some ADC programs that have been in progress at Agensys, including its collaboration with Seattle Genetics.

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