Jnana Therapeutics inks second collaboration with Swiss giant

Boston, USA-based biotech start-up Jnana Therapeutics, which is leveraging its next-gen chemoproteomics platform to discover medicines for challenging-to-drug targets, today announced two important milestones for the company.

First up, Jnana said it has entered into a second collaboration and license agreement with Swiss pharma giant Roche (ROG: SIX) for the discovery of small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer, immune-mediated and neurological diseases. The collaboration covers multiple targets from a diverse range of target classes to address diseases with high unmet need.

Under the terms of the new accord, Jnana will receive an upfront $50 million, significant near-term milestone payments, and additional potential future payments that could exceed $2 billion, as well as tiered royalties. Jnana will conduct discovery and preclinical activities against multiple cancer, immune-mediated and neurological disease targets, and Roche will be responsible for development and commercialization of any resulting products.