Gilead takes aim at diabetic kidney disease with $109M Goldfinch deal

Three weeks after striking a NASH partnership with Insitro, Gilead is turning its sights to diabetic kidney disease (DKD). In a $109 million deal, Gilead and Goldfinch Bio will use the latter’s Kidney Genome Atlas to identify and validate targets for DKD and “certain orphan kidney diseases.” Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Goldfinch Bio aims to use a precision medicine approach to better treat kidney disease. Its pipeline is based on its Kidney Genome Atlas, a patient registry containing genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data with thousands of anonymized clinical patient profiles. It uses the database to identify mutations or sequence genetic variants that occur in patients with kidney disease. In addition to a $55 million upfront fee—that includes a $5 million equity investment—Gilead will pay Goldfinch $54 million to support the development of the Kidney Genome Atlas for DKD, also known as diabetic nephropathy.