Vernalis jumps on deal with Genentech

The UK's Vernalis (LSE: VER) saw its shares jump more than 5% to 20.75 yesterday, after the company revealed that it has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with Genentech, a subsidiary of Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX), utilizing Vernalis’ fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform against an undisclosed target. Financial terms of this collaboration were not disclosed.

Ian Garland, chief executive of Vernalis, commented: “We are delighted that Genentech has selected Vernalis to work with it on this target. Their selection of Vernalis further endorses our market leading fragment and structure-based drug discovery platform and validates our strategy to substantially fund our research activities through collaborations. We look forward to building a close working relationship with Genentech and ultimately a successful collaboration.”

James Sabry, Vice President of Genentech Partnering, said “Genentech constantly seeks collaborations like this one to develop therapies that offer the potential of advancing the standard of care and making a meaningful difference in the lives of patients. We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with Vernalis.”