Forma, Boehringer Ingelheim to Partner on Cancer Drugs

(USTR.gov)

Forma Therapeutics, a biotechnology company in Watertown, Massachusetts says it signed an agreement with the German pharmaceutical maker Boehringer Ingelheim to discover and develop drug candidates for cancer. The deal involves the discovery of small molecule drugs targeting interactions among proteins.

Forma’s technology for cancer drug discovery involves computational and medicinal chemistry, parallel synthesis, and X-ray crystallography. in conjunction with relevant biological studies. The company says it processes more than 40 drug targets per year, transforming the most promising candidates into drug-like molecules for further development.

Under the agreement, Forma will receive $65 million in up-front payments and research funding to screen for and optimize compounds against multiple oncology targets over the next four years.   The company could also qualify for up to $750 million in pre-commercial milestones for programs resulting from the collaboration.

In June 2011, Forma signed a research collaboration with the Genentech subsidiary of Roche that gave Genetech the rights to acquire a pre-clinical small molecule program against a single cancer target. Under that deal Forma receives an initial payment and subsequent research funding, as well as qualifies for milestone payments. But Genentech also has the option to purchase the entire program later on.

Read more: Genentech Gets Rights, Can Buy Out Biotech Research Program

*     *     *