Vernalis enters cancer R&D accord with Servier

UK neurology specialist drugmaker Vernalis and Servier, France's largest privately-owned pharmaceutical company, have entered into a joint, three-year, oncology drug discovery collaboration.

Under the terms of the collaboration which utilizes Vernalis' proprietary drug discovery platform on this undisclosed target, Vernalis will receive an upfront payment and a share in the downstream success of the product. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Vernalis chief executive Simon Sturge stated that the collaboration with Servier "validates our fragment-based drug discovery platform. This platform is currently being used to progress a number of our research programs." He added that the accord with Servier "follows on from a recent announcement that another of our partners, Novartis, has selected a second Hsp90 compound, also discovered using our innovative platform, as a preclinical development candidate."