Roche partners in new company for MS research

Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) has entered into an exclusive partnership with Inception Sciences, a drug discovery incubator exclusively backed by Versant Ventures, and Versant to create Inception 5, a new company dedicated to the R&D of novel small-molecule remyelinating therapies for patients with multiple sclerosis.

The collaboration will focus on screening and developing novel small molecule therapies that aim to promote remyelination of nerve sheaths damaged as a result of multiple sclerosis disease progression. Inception 5 will build on recent discoveries in the field and a proprietary remyelination screening platform developed by investigators at the University of California, San Francisco. The company will pursue multiple molecular targets for remyelination that have already been identified.

Versant will provide equity financing to the company and Roche will fund the research based on a series of milestones. Roche retains an exclusive option to acquire Inception 5 upon a first lead compound reaching the filing stage of an Investigational New Drug application.