Drug Discovery company, Confo Therapeutics has announced that it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Roche for the discovery, development and commercialisation of novel, small molecule agonists of an undisclosed G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) for the treatment of neurological and developmental disorders.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche gains exclusive rights to the compounds resulting from the collaboration and will be responsible for their development, manufacturing and commercialisation.

The financial terms include an upfront payment, pre-clinical milestones and research funding to Confo Therapeutics totaling €6 million over the initial 30 months period of the collaboration.

In addition, Confo Therapeutics is eligible to receive up to €81.5 million of payments for certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones, plus tiered royalties on the annual net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.

Confo Therapeutics is a VUB-VIB spin-off co-founded in 2015 by VIB and Capricorn Venture Partners with the support of MINTS, PMV, QBIC and V-Bio Ventures. Confo Therapeutics is a drug discovery company building a portfolio of first-in-class programs based on its proprietary Confo® technology, using antibody fragments or “Confobodies” to lock inherently unstable functional conformations of GPCRs as a superior starting point for drug discovery.

Dr. Cedric Ververken, CEO said, “Securing this partnership with Roche is another significant corporate milestone for Confo Therapeutics. The decision by a global pharmaceutical company to work with Confo Therapeutics further validates the strength of our proprietary Confo technology and the capabilities of our team. It also strengthens our resolve to vigorously pursue our own proprietary product pipeline in addition to enabling our partners to develop valuable medicines for patients.”