Ares-Serono Signs Multi-Year Agreement With Signal

Swiss group Ares-Serono and Signal Pharmaceuticals of California, USA,have announced the formation of a multi-year collaboration to develop novel drugs for autoimmune, inflammatory and other chronic diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ares-Serono will make an equity investment of $8 million in Signal and will provide research funding of $9 million over the first three years of the collaboration. Ares-Serono will also make milestone payments totaling over $10 million for each product to result from research.

The deal focuses on identifying small molecule modulators of the NF-kB gene regulation pathway. Signal will be primarily responsible for target identification and validation, high-throughput screening and lead optimization, while Ares-Serono will conduct development and marketing for all indications worldwide, except in certain Asian countries.