Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. has entered into a product development agreement with Roche to advance Roche’s first two RNA interference (RNAi) product candidates into human trials. Both of the product candidates will be based on Tekmira’s stable nucleic acid-lipid particle (SNALP) technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Roche will pay Tekmira as much as $18.4 million to support IND applications for the product candidates. Tekmira is also eligible to receive as much as $32 million in milestones plus royalties on product sales should the first two products advance to commercialization. Tekmira will develop and manufacture the drug product for use in all preclinical studies as well as one batch of clinical product for a Phase I trial.

Dr. Mark J. Murray, Tekmira’s president and chief executive officer, said, “We are extremely pleased to be working with Roche, a global pioneer in the development of important therapeutic products and a leader in the RNAi field. This agreement is consistent with our strategy of working with leading pharmaceutical companies to help them advance products based on our SNALP technology, and to leverage this work in order to advance our own products.”

Dr. Louis Renzetti, head of RNA therapeutics at Roche, said “We are enthusiastic about the potential of RNAi therapeutics for patients with hard-to-treat diseases. We believe Tekmira’s SNALP is the leading lipid nanoparticle delivery technology and we are confident that Tekmira’s research and manufacturing capabilities will help us to meet our product development objectives.”

The two companies expect an IND for the first product candidate to be filed before the end of 2010.