Intellectual property-based business IP Group reported on Wednesday that Microbiotica, one of its many portfolio companies, has entered into $534m multi-year strategic collaboration deal with Roche Group subsidiary Genentech.
As part of the agreement, Microbiotica, in which IP Group holds an undiluted beneficial stake of 33.4%, will develop and commercialise biomarkers, targets and medicines for inflammatory bowel disease alongside Genentech.

Microbiotica will utilise its precision metagenomics microbiome platform to analyse patient samples from clinical trials of Genentech's investigational inflammatory bowel disease medicines, in order to identify microbiome biomarker signatures of drug response, novel drug targets and live bacterial therapeutic products.

The FTSE 250 firm will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible to receive research, development and commercialisation milestone payments up to $534m, based on achievement of certain predetermined milestones, and will also be eligible to receive royalties on the sale of certain products.

Dr Mike Romanos, Microbiotica's chief executive, said, "This collaboration brings together a world-class pipeline of investigational IBD medicines from Genentech with the world-class microbiome capability of Microbiotica."

"This collaboration reflects Microbiotica's strategy of utilising its platform for medicines and biomarker discovery while simultaneously expanding platform capabilities. Whilst Genentech will retain rights to proprietary biomarkers, targets and medicines, the collaboration will enable Microbiotica to continue to rapidly expand its already leading Reference Genome Database and Culture Collection, further strengthening its value across all therapeutic areas," added Dr Romanos.

As of 1100 BST, IP Group shares had picked up 3.46% to 143.40p.

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