Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, has extended its exclusivity period for the research collaboration and license agreement with Phylogica Ltd. to discover novel antibiotics using Phylogica’s Phylomer drug discovery platform, including its proprietary cell penetrating peptide discovery technology.
 
Phylogica will receive a $2 million milestone payment. As previously announced in December 2014, Phylogica is eligible to receive research, development, and commercialization milestone payments totaling as much as $142 million.   
 
Phylogica’s chief scientific advisor, Professor Paul Watt said, “We are delighted with the progress of our collaboration with Genentech over the last year.  This alliance has the potential to address a critical unmet need to develop novel antibiotics to treat bacterial infections including antimicrobial-resistant infections. The World Health Organization has identified antimicrobial resistance as one of the 3 most important problems for human health.  We look forward to continuing to work with Genentech’s scientific team to tackle this increasingly important, global challenge.”