Lead Pharma, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company, designing and developing innovative medicines for the treatment of immune mediated diseases and cancer, today announced that it has entered into a collaboration and license agreement with Roche to develop oral small molecules to treat a broad range of immune mediated diseases.

In this single target research collaboration Lead Pharma and Roche will collaborate in research activities up to the selection of a pre-clinical candidate after which Roche will be responsible for further development and global commercialization.

"Our ambition is to develop life-changing treatments for patients. We are delighted to team up with Roche to pursue this goal", said Frans van den Berg, Chief Executive Officer of Lead Pharma. "Partnering is a key element of our strategy, this collaboration is yet another validation of the value of Lead Pharma's innovation power."

Arthur Oubrie, Chief Scientific Officer of Lead Pharma, added: "This is the second project we partner with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies under our Discover, Design and Deliver platform. Our rigorous target selection process, translational screening cascade, and smart medicinal chemistry have been essential to bring this project to this stage. We are keen to collaborate with our colleagues at Roche to bring this novel approach to patients."

"We are committed to advancing innovative science and transformative medicines for people affected by different immune mediated diseases", says James Sabry, Global Head, Roche Pharma Partnering. "We are looking forward to further building on our expertise in this field and collaborating with Lead Pharma, aiming to make a difference for those patients."

A wide range of human diseases is driven by deregulated immune function. There are hundreds of immune-mediated disorders that include joint diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Manifestations of immune-mediated diseases range from mild skin rashes to severe organ failure and death.