Penn Spinout Interius BioTherapeutics to be Acquired by Kite Pharma

A University of Pennsylvania spinout that is developing a faster and cheaper way to modify immune cells to fight cancer will be sold to Kite Pharma, a unit of Gilead Sciences Inc., for $350 million. Cofounded by Saar Gill, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Hematology-Oncology, Interius BioTherapeutics Inc. is testing a technology designed to create CAR-T cells inside the patient’s body. Currently, these therapies require reengineering a patient’s cells outside the body and injecting them back into the patient, a process that can take weeks.