Ricerca Biosciences LLC announced an agreement under which Eli Lilly and Company has granted to Ricerca exclusive worldwide rights to select targets as well as select patents and know-how from its small molecule antibacterial program.Ricerca will own rights to develop and commercialize drugs based on the antibacterial targets and Lilly will receive an upfront payment, equity position in Ricerca, as well as royalties and milestone payments from any drugs and drug candidates developed and/or co-developed by Ricerca.Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Lilly is a leader in pharmaceutical research and development. They are well known for their six decades of success in the field of infectious diseases -- with products such as penicillin, vancomycin, erythromycin and cephalosporins.We are extremely happy that they have chosen Ricerca to further work with these drug targets to potentially develop and commercialise anti-bacterial small molecules," said Prabhavathi Fernandes, Ricerca's Chief Executive Officer. "We believe this agreement will enable us to accelerate and broaden our programs in this area and we will be actively seeking development partners to further speed the process."

Ricerca initiated its infectious diseases program this past July, by in-licensing from Genset S.A. the entire genomic sequences of Chlamydia pneumoniae and Chlamydia trachomatis.Recently, it has announced a collaboration with ProQuest Pharmaceuticals to develop prodrug based anti-infective products.The Company is actively licensing a portfolio of new genomic targets and lead candidate molecules in anti-infectives and oncology for its partnered drug development programs.