Lead Pharma,a company designing and developing innovative medicines for the treatment of immune mediated diseases and cancer, has entered into a collaboration and licence agreement with Roche to develop oral small molecules to treat a broad range of immune-mediated diseases.

In a single-target research collaboration the two companies will carry out joint research activities up to the selection of a preclinical candidate after which Roche will be responsible for further development and global commercialization of the new molecule. Lead Pharma will receive an upfront payment of €10 million and will be eligible to receive research funding and preclinical 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.