Phylogica and Genentech extend collaboration for antibiotic research

Phylogica, an Australian drug discovery company, has extended its research collaboration and licensing agreement with Genentech to discover novel antibiotics.

Phylogica will receive a milestone payment of $2 million. It will further be eligible to receive payments of up to $142 million for research, development and commercialisation.

Paul Watt, Phylogica’s chief scientific advisor, 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.”

He added: “The World Health Organization has identified antimicrobial resistance as one of the three 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.”