X-Chem and Roche Enter Into Drug Discovery Collaboration and License Agreement

WALTHAM, Mass., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- X-Chem, Inc. today announced the signing of a multi-year collaborative agreement with Roche to apply X-Chem's proprietary platform to the rapid discovery of drug candidates against several of Roche's high-value therapeutic targets. As part of the agreement, Roche will provide X-Chem with upfront and research payments, success-based discovery milestones, and technology access fees. Roche will have the right to develop and commercialise any product arising from the collaboration, and X-Chem will receive development milestones and royalties based on worldwide sales of the therapeutic products developed by Roche. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"Entering into our first major alliance with a partner such as Roche is extraordinarily exciting for our company," said Richard W. Wagner, Ph.D., President and CEO of X-Chem. "Roche has an exceptional track record in recognizing and embracing powerful biotechnology innovations. The program that we are developing will establish drug discovery capabilities unique in the industry."

About X-Chem. X-Chem, Inc. is a biotechnology company formed in January 2010 by Richard Wagner, Brant Binder, and Gordon Binder, based in Cambridge, MA. The company's mission is to apply its innovative drug discovery capabilities to the discovery of compounds against novel, proprietary therapeutic targets. X-Chem's initial interest is to screen novel targets in stem cell biology using the recently introduced BIND^® Scanner instrument developed and marketed by SRU Biosystems, a label-free, microplate-based system for profiling compounds that affect stem cell growth, health, and differentiation.

www.x-chemrx.com

SOURCE X-Chem, Inc.