Lead Pharma enters into a Research Collaboration and License Agreement with Roche to Develop Oral Small Molecules for Immune Mediated Diseases

OSS, Netherlands, Nov. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lead Pharma, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, designing and developing innovative medicines for the treatment of immune mediated diseases and cancer, today announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Roche to develop oral small molecules to treat a broad range of immune mediated diseases.

In this single target research collaboration Lead Pharma and Roche will collaborate in research activities up to the selection of a pre-clinical candidate after which Roche will be responsible for further development and global commercialization.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lead Pharma will receive an upfront payment of €10 million, and will be eligible to receive research funding and pre-clinical milestone payments; total potential payments including research, development, regulatory and sales milestones may add up to an aggregate of €260 million, plus royalties on worldwide sales.

"Our ambition is to develop life-changing treatments for patients. We are delighted to team up with Roche to pursue this goal", said Frans van den Berg, Chief Executive Officer of Lead Pharma. "Partnering is a key element of our strategy, this collaboration is yet another validation of the value of Lead Pharma's innovation power."

Arthur Oubrie, Chief Scientific Officer of Lead Pharma, added: "This is the second project we partner with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies under our Discover, Design and Deliver platform. Our rigorous target selection process, translational screening cascade, and smart medicinal chemistry have been essential to bring this project to this stage. We are keen to collaborate with our colleagues at Roche to bring this novel approach to patients."

"We are committed to advancing innovative science and transformative medicines for people affected by different immune mediated diseases",  says James Sabry, Global Head, Roche Pharma Partnering. "We are looking forward to further building on our expertise in this field and collaborating with Lead Pharma, aiming to make a difference for those patients."

About Immune Mediated Diseases

A wide range of human diseases is driven by deregulated immune function. There are hundreds of immune-mediated disorders that include joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Manifestations of immune-mediated diseases range from mild skin rashes to severe organ failure and death.

About Lead Pharma

Lead Pharma is a pharmaceutical company focusing on the discovery and development of innovative medicines for the treatment of immune diseases and cancer.

Lead Pharma is headquartered at Pivot Park, the biopharmaceutical life sciences campus in Oss, the Netherlands. We have fully equipped labs for all stages of drug discovery, including medicinal chemistry, cellular pharmacology, and molecular pharmacology, as well as an "in silico" lab for our computational chemistry, bioinformatics, and data mining activities. Lead Pharma has a qualified team of 29 people of which 10 hold a PhD degree and have long term experience working in large pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies and academia.

For more information visit: www.leadpharma.com 

Contact:

Media Inquiries:
LifeSpring Life Sciences Communication, Amsterdam
Leon Melens
Tel.: +31 (0) 6 538 16 427
Lmelens(at)lifespring.nl

Company Inquiries:

Lead Pharma Holding B.V.
Frans van den Berg, MSc MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Tel.: +31 412 782999
[email protected]

SOURCE Lead Pharma