A drug-hunting venture borne out of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co./Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc. buyout in 2011 has resulted in a new opportunity for Roche. Under a novel collaboration structure involving big pharma, venture capital and biotech, Inception Science will create a third company – called Inception 3 Inc. – to discover and develop small molecule drug candidates for sensorineural hearing loss based on technology licensed from Stanford University.
Roche, which will fund Inception 3’s work with milestone-based R&D payments, will hold an option to acquire the program upon...