Evolva Holding SA announced that Roche has confirmed that Evolva has achieved its first milestone in their collaboration. Roche will now make a corresponding milestone payment (of an undisclosed amount) to Evolva. The milestone relates to the achievement of diverse, purified active compounds that derive from Evolva’s synthetic biology platform. The milestone payment does not change Evolva’s cash flow guidance for 2011.

The aim of Evolva’s collaboration with Roche is to use Evolva’s technology platform to create compounds with activity on targets in oncology and infectious disease. The project commenced in January 2010.

“The collaboration with Roche is progressing well. Our platform is delivering on its promise to fundamentally change multiple industries. After recent successes in nutritional ingredients, it is great to see the potential in pharmaceuticals further confirmed.”

The Roche discovery collaboration programme was initiated in January 2010 and focuses on creating compounds with activity on targets in oncology and infectious disease using Evolva’s technology platform. Roche has paid Evolva an up front technology access fee and is paying research fees during the project. 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.