Roche (RHHBY.US) enters near-$900M collaboration to develop autoimmune disease therapies

COUR Pharmaceuticals announced a strategic collaboration and license agreement with Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche (RHHBY.US), to co-develop and commercialize COUR's proprietary tolerogenic nanoparticle therapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, COUR will receive a $40 million upfront payment and recent milestone payments, in addition to over $900 million in development, commercialization, and sales milestone payments. According to the agreement, COUR will be responsible for completing the early clinical development and technology transfer, while Genentech will take on the clinical development, regulatory filings, and commercialization.

Currently, COUR is conducting a Phase 1b/2a, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center clinical trial for myasthenia gravis, while advancing the development of its candidate drug for type 1 diabetes.