Vernalis And Servier Sign New Three-Year Collaboration

Vernalis plc (LSE: VER) and Servier, France's largest privately-owned pharmaceutical company, today announced that they have signed a new three-year joint oncology collaboration, focused on the discovery of drugs for a new target.

Under the terms of the collaboration which uses Vernalis' proprietary fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform on this undisclosed cancer target, Vernalis will receive fees and a share in the downstream success of the product in the form of milestones and royalties on sales, the terms of which are not disclosed. Vernalis and Servier already have an existing collaborative agreement to develop two promising oncology targets involved in protein-protein interactions.

Ian Garland, CEO of Vernalis, commented: "This latest collaboration with Servier confirms our excellent working relationship and Servier's recognition of the quality of our fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform. We are currently using this platform to progress two promising oncology targets involved in protein-protein interactions under our existing collaboration, as well as a number of our own internal research programmes."

Emmanuel Canet, MD, PhD, President Servier Research and Development, added : "We are benefiting significantly from our existing relationship with Vernalis as part of our strategy to increase our efforts in the development of novel anti-cancer therapeutic approaches. This new collaboration will further expedite the discovery of innovative compounds with potential use in therapeutic indications with high unmet medical need."

"Cancer represents a major cause of mortality worldwide and Servier is committed to providing patients with novel therapeutic approaches for treating these devastating diseases. We are confident that this new collaboration with Vernalis will further complement our research activities and help us to reach our objectives" added Bernard Marchand, PhD, General Manager of Servier Research.

SOURCE: Vernalis