Evolva Holding SA has signed an agreement with Roche to create compounds with activity on targets in oncology and anti-infectives using Evolva’s technology platform. Roche will pay Evolva an up-front technology access fee and ongoing research fees. Roche will have responsibility to take forward any compounds discovered during the collaboration and will potentially pay Evolva research and clinical milestone fees as well as royalties on any products that result from the collaboration. Evolva will have the first right to any compounds not taken forward, or subsequently deprioritised by Roche.

Neil Goldsmith, CEO & managing director of Evolva, said, “The agreement with Roche represents another step forward in the development of our genetic chemistry technologies. By exploring biosynthetic scaffolds that have many of the 'design features' of nature we aim to build a pipeline of novel diverse compounds with anti-infective and anti-cancer effects. We are very pleased to have a leading player such as Roche expressing their confidence in our discovery platform.”

Evolva's proprietary discovery technology platform uses a 'disruptive' technological approach to the creation of novel small compounds that differs sharply from the prevailing synthetic chemistry and protein engineering approaches in the pharmaceutical industry.