UBC and partners sign major licensing deal with Roche

The Univ of British Columbia has completed its largest licensing agreement to date for a promising treatment for advanced prostate cancer. The agreement with Roche, a Basel, Switzerland-based multinational, was signed by UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute which co-host the Vancouver Prostate Centre where the new drug technology was developed and is now in pre-clinical development. Under the terms of the agreement, UBC and VCHRI will receive an upfront payment of up to US $141.7 million in pre-clinical, clinical and sales milestone payments. The scientists responsible for the development will share 50% of net revenues. The Vancouver Prostate Centre hosts PC-TRIADD, a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research, which funded the research along with Prostate Centre Canada, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Safeway Canada and the Canadian Institute of Health Research's recently defunded Proof of Principle commercialization program....