CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rheos Medicines (Rheos), a biopharmaceutical company harnessing insights in immunometabolism to create a new class of therapeutics for patients with severe autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases and cancer, today announced that it has entered into a worldwide exclusive collaboration, option and license agreement with Roche to discover, develop and commercialize novel therapeutics in the field of immunometabolism.

novel class of therapeutics for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory disease,? said Gijs van den Brink, SVP and Global Head of Immunology, Infectious Diseases and Ophthalmology at Roche Pharma Early Research and Development. "We believe Rheos' proprietary platform and expertise in immunometabolism is a strong complement to Roche's expertise in autoimmunity and inflammation and in developing and commercializing innovative therapies." Under the terms of the agreement, Rheos will conduct an exclusive research effort to identify novel targets in immunometabolism that modify the fate or function of certain human immune cells. In addition, Rheos will also be responsible for drug discovery efforts under the collaboration. Roche will receive an option to exclusively license a defined number of programs emerging from the collaboration. For certain products within the collaboration, Rheos and Roche could share worldwide development and US commercial rights. Rheos will receive an upfront cash payment of $42.5 million upon execution and will be eligible to receive up to approximately $90 million for specified research and preclinical development milestones as well as option fees. Rheos will also be eligible to receive up to an additional approximately $660 million in specified development, regulatory and sales related milestones across the programs and tiered royalties on net sales. For those products for which Rheos and Roche could share development and commercial rights Rheos will be entitled to additional financial compensation within the US and ex- US commensurate with the share of its financial investment in development and commercialization. About Rheos Medicines Rheos Medicines is a biopharmaceutical company harnessing insights in immunometabolism to develop novel therapeutics for patients with severe autoimmune disorders, inflammatory diseases and cancer. Our approach targets the underlying intracellular metabolism of immune cells and has the potential to unlock a new frontier in drug discovery for immune-mediated disease. Through a proprietary platform and product engine that integrates multiple ?omic? datasets, we systematically define the biologic links between immune cell metabolism and function and simultaneously identify new drug targets and biomarkers of disease to bring precision to the treatment of immune-mediated diseases. We have assembled leading scientists whose discoveries opened the field of immunometabolism, clinicians with a deep understanding of immune-mediated diseases, and an experienced biotech leadership team. Rheos was founded by Third Rock Ventures and is located in Cambridge, MA. For more information, please visit?www.rheosrx.com.