Arcus CMO moving to Gilead to head clinical oncology research

Arcus Biosciences disclosed in a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that chief medical officer Bill Grossman will transition out of his role at the company to take up the post of senior vice president of oncology clinical research at Gilead Sciences, effective July 26. According to Arcus, Grossman's new job overseeing Gilead's clinical-stage oncology portfolio will also entail leading Gilead's efforts in an existing alliance between the two companies to jointly develop and commercialise Arcus' investigational cancer medicines.

Gilead inked a 10-year cancer immunotherapy partnership with Arcus in May 2020 in which it picked up immediate rights to Arcus' PD-1 inhibitor zimberelimab (AB122), as well as opt-in rights to the anti-TIGIT monoclonal antibody domvanalimab (AB154) and the A2aR/A2bR antagonist etrumadenant (AB928). If Gilead does decide to opt in to the anti-TIGIT programme, Arcus is eligible to receive up to $500 million in potential future US regulatory approval milestones.

Last month, Arcus reported "encouraging" Phase II results for domvanalimab when given as first-line treatment to PD-L1-high patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer, but did not reveal any specific data from the trial (see ViewPoints: Arcus kicks the TIGIT can down the road).

'Point of contact' at Gilead

Arcus said that in his new role, Grossman will be the company's "point of contact at Gilead for development activities across [our] programmes," adding that "this move reinforces both companies' commitment to working together to advance important new medicines for people with cancer." Meanwhile, Kartik Krishnan, who heads clinical development at Arcus, will now assume full leadership of Arcus' clinical development programme.

It noted that Krishnan, who joined the company in 2019, has been taking on "increasing responsibilities since December of last year when Grossman began consulting for Gilead while concurrently acting as CMO at Arcus." In his expanded role, Arcus said Krishnan will assume more strategic and operational leadership responsibilities, and "liaise with his long-time colleague Grossman to ensure seamless interactions across the two companies."