Pharmacopeia, an innovator in the discovery and development of novel small molecule therapeutics, and Organon, the human healthcare business unit of Akzo Nobel announced that they have entered into a new alliance to discover, develop and commercialize therapeutic products across a broad range of therapeutic indications, including neuroscience and immunology. This alliance builds on over ten years of collaborative work between Pharmacopeia and Organon.

Under the terms of the alliance agreement, Pharmacopeia will receive an up-front payment of $15 million and additional payments in research funding over the five-year term of the research portion of the alliance.

Under the agreement, both Organon and Pharmacopeia will work collaboratively to generate development compounds addressing targets of mutual interest by taking advantage of the complementary discovery skills and expertise of each company. The goal is to produce compounds ready to enter development which will be primarily handled by Organon. The agreement provides Pharmacopeia the option to co-develop and co-commercialize therapeutic candidates discovered through the alliance.

For therapeutic candidates that Pharmacopeia does not elect to co-develop and co-commercialize, Organon will retain exclusive development and commercialization rights and Pharmacopeia will receive milestone payments as a result of Organon's successful advancement, if any, of each candidate through clinical development, and up to double-digit royalties based on commercialization of any resulting pharmaceutical products.

"Organon has always been, and will continue to be, committed to the creation of long-term value for patients by investing today in the discovery and development of the medicines of tomorrow," says David Nicholson, executive vice president Research and Development of Organon. "Our new alliance with Pharmacopeia provides Organon with access to industry-leading small molecule discovery capability, and with Pharmacopeia's evolution into a therapeutic products business, enables Organon to continue to build its clinical pipeline with a valued, long-term partner."

"This new alliance, and the option we retain to co-develop and co-commercialize products, is consistent with our strategy of retaining a significant share of the ownership of programs on which we work," said Les Browne, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacopeia. "We recently submitted the IND for our internal DARA program, and partnering with leading players in our industry such as Organon enables us to balance the investment and reward of drug development and thereby optimize returns for Pharmacopeia's shareholders."