Memory Pharmaceuticals Corp., a company focused on neurodegenerative diseases, secured its first licensing agreement, a potential $150 million deal with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. focused on the development of compounds for Alzheimer's disease.

Roche, of Basel, Switzerland, acquired an exclusive worldwide license to develop compounds that are in preclinical studies.

"We've spent considerable effort to provide our very first platform and pipeline," Memory CEO Tony Scullion told BioWorld Today. "Earlier this year, we actively pursued our first collaboration, and we are delighted with this one."

Privately held Memory, of Montvale, N.J., also has a parallel strategy with Roche for compounds with a similar mechanism of action for depression and other psychiatric diseases, such as anxiety.

Scullion said the deal is "highly significant" to Memory, especially due to the stature, experience and global reach of Roche. Having Roche as a partner validates Memory's platform and pipeline, he said.

The deal includes an undisclosed up-front cash payment, research and development funding, "very appropriate" milestones in both the preclinical and clinical phases and royalties for Memory, President and Chief Scientific Officer Axel Unterbeck said.

"We certainly have front-end milestones," he said. However, he declined to be specific, saying the companies agreed not to discuss financial details, although Roche will be responsible for commercializing any resulting products.

"We basically believe it's one of the most substantial financial commitments for a program at this stage, that is, a preclinical collaboration, within the industry in the past few years," Unterbeck said.

He said the first course of action in the collaboration is to "develop a defined clinical candidate for Alzheimer's disease."

The compounds are within a class in the family of MEM 1414, which the company said is believed to be a competitive inhibitor of phosphodiesterase enzymes, and may be used to treat mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease and major depression. Unterbeck said the program also addresses anxiety, which often is related to depression.

Memory will be responsible for all preclinical work, while Roche will take over once a compound enters the clinic. The first compound is scheduled to advance to clinical trials in the first half of 2003, Unterbeck said.

Separately, Memory plans to enter the clinic in the fourth quarter with MEM 1003, a candidate to treat central nervous system disorders. MEM 1003 was in-licensed from Bayer AG, of Leverkusen, Germany, in September. The company's research indicates that MEM 1003 modulates neuronal calcium channels by regulating Ca2+ flow into the cell, allowing additional time to clear high levels of calcium.

"For both that and some of our earlier candidates, we are looking at [potential] partners," Scullion said. "Like Roche, we want the right partner to maximize the opportunities for this pipeline."

Founded in 1998, Memory reported in March that it had raised $40 million in a private financing. Since its inception, the company had raised $77 million at that time. (See BioWorld Today, March 26, 2002.)

Eric Kandel, 2000 Nobel Laureate, is a co-founder of the company, and it is his findings and intellectual property on which Memory's Cognostics technology platform is based. Kandel serves as chairman of the scientific advisory board.

The Cognostics platform consists of an array of state-of-the-art bioassays that evaluate the biological, physiological and behavioral aspects of drug effects within relevant memory pathways, the company said.