Amira Pharmaceuticals announced its first milestone payment from pharmaceutical partner Roche just nine months after the start of their research collaboration.

The payment is the result of an innovative collaboration in the field of inflammatory disease. Amira has identified a series of drug candidates against one mutually-agreed target.

Peppi Prasit, Chief Scientific Officer of Amira, said: "This kind of preclinical research can take years and it's a tribute to our scientific team that we have delivered results in a matter of months rather than years. We look forward to investigating another two drug targets, as part of our partnership with Roche."

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in San Diego, Amira Pharmaceuticals is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, focused on inflammatory disease.

The founding team at Amira has over 100 combined years of experience in drug discovery, which includes the development of marketed drugs for a variety of indications. Its scientific founders Peppi Prasit, Jilly Evans and John Hutchinson have successfully worked together for over 20 years.

In the first quarter of 2007, the company expects to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application with the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for a new clinical compound in respiratory disease. In addition, early clinical trials of a Roche-derived product for dermatological disorders will begin shortly in Europe. Amira will be seeking development partners for both of these compounds shortly.