Almac Discovery, a biopharmaceutical company based in Craigavon, has announced a Research and Licensing agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group to discover and develop small molecule inhibitors of a ubiquitin specific protease (USP) target.

Under the terms of the agreement, Almac Discovery will receive an upfront payment of $14.5 million. Almac Discovery will be eligible to receive up to $349 million in payments based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones as well as escalating tiered royalties on potential commercial sales of multiple products to the target by Genentech.

Almac Discovery's small molecule inhibitors will be the starting point for a two-year joint research programme funded by Genentech. Genentech will be responsible for all pre-clinical and clinical development and commercialisation of products arising from the collaboration.

Tim Harrison, Vice President Drug Discovery, Almac Discovery said: "Inhibitors of ubiquitin specific proteases have been a highly sought after, yet elusive drug class, proving difficult to identify despite significant efforts from both pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Ubiquitin specific proteases have been shown to play an important role in a number of key oncogenic pathways, and the identification of potent, selective inhibitors provides an exciting opportunity to fully exploit this novel biology, as well as further demonstrating the chemical tractability of this important target class."

(CD)