Genentech partners with UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco has signed a partnership agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche Group, to discover and develop drug candidates for neurodegenerative diseases. Under the agreement, Genentech will provide funding in neuroscience and will collaborate with UCSF to identify small molecules. Genentech will support the work of researchers at the UCSF Small Molecule Discovery Center. A research team at Genentech will work with UCSF to develop a drug candidate based on prior academic research conducted at the SMDC and discoveries at Genentech. In addition to receiving financial support from Genentech for its research function, UCSF has the potential for further funding in excess of $13 million, if certain development and commercial milestones are met, plus royalties.