Siena Biotech S.p.A., announced that Roche will exercise its option early to become the lead party for further development, manufacture and commercialization of certain selected candidate molecules for a better treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Under the terms of the collaboration, Siena Biotech has received an undisclosed option exercise fee and is eligible for further success payments upon attainment of certain development and regulatory milestones. Following successful development and commercialization of any of the candidate compounds, Siena Biotech will also receive royalties on product sales: Siena Biotech has retained rights for the further research and development of commonly discovered novel compounds for Orphan indications.

"The Collaboration Agreement with Roche is an excellent example of our commitment to the fight against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and rare forms of disease for which there is a large unmet medical need," says Dr Giovanni Gaviraghi, chief executive officer of Siena Biotech S.p.A. "We believe the option exercised by Roche is a significant point in the advancement of our pipeline. This project represents one of many potentially significant compounds moving towards clinical trials, bringing to the market new therapies that will help people with incurable diseases. We believe that Roche's selection of these compounds will speed such development providing Siena Biotech with additional resources to advance other compounds in our pipeline to clinical development."

"Roche's option exercise on the jointly developed molecules is a further validation of Siena Biotech's discovery and development capabilities, confirming the sound science deployed in the research efforts on this and other projects and the commitment of our management and of the Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation to tackle new mechanisms of therapeutic action that have not been successfully addressed before," added Marco Parlangeli, president of Siena Biotech S.p.A. and managing director of Monte dei Paschi di Siena Foundation.

The Research and Collaboration Agreement between Roche and Siena Biotech was signed in April 2007 to perform joint research activities on an undisclosed target, with the primary objective to identify active compounds against neurodegenerative diseases, and specifically Alzheimer's Disease. The two companies have contributed with their respective Intellectual Property, assets and know-how, and have been exclusively collaborating on the selected target, sharing the IP which has emerged from the collaboration.

Siena Biotech S.p.A. is an innovative, clinical-stage drug discovery company whose R&D efforts are focused on discovering new drugs for therapeutic intervention against neurodegenerative diseases and in oncology.