Gilead makes a $100M bet that As­sem­bly Bio can ad­vance an­tivi­rals, toss­ing life­line to strug­gling biotech

Gilead is pour­ing sig­nif­i­cant cash in­to a start­up that’s seen sev­er­al set­backs over the years while promis­ing a hefty help­ing of biobucks down the road if it can ad­vance a hand­ful of an­tivi­ral can­di­dates.

The part­ner­ship with As­sem­bly Bio­sciences an­nounced Tues­day aims to dis­cov­er new an­tivi­ral treat­ments for her­pesvirus­es, he­pati­tis B and he­pati­tis D, ac­cord­ing to a Tues­day press re­lease. Gilead will start As­sem­bly Bio off with $84.8 mil­lion in cash and a $15.2 mil­lion eq­ui­ty in­vest­ment — $100 mil­lion to­tal — and is dan­gling up to $1.9 bil­lion in po­ten­tial mile­stones for its five clin­i­cal pro­grams.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER