US pharmaceutical company AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) announced on Thursday that it has entered into a new discovery, co-development and licence agreement with Gedeon Richter plc, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Hungary.

This collaboration aims to advance novel targets for the potential treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions.

AbbVie said that the partnership builds on the success of around two decades of collaboration on central nervous system (CNS) projects, including globally launched products such as cariprazine (VRAYLAR / REAGILA) and the discovery of investigational drug candidate ABBV-932 for the treatment of bipolar depression and generalised anxiety disorder.

Under the terms of the agreement, the partnership includes both preclinical and clinical R&D activities with financing shared by the companies. Richter will receive an upfront cash payment of USD25m, along with potential future development, regulatory and commercialisation milestones. Richter may also receive sales-based royalties. AbbVie will have global commercialisation rights except for Richter's traditional markets, such as geographic Europe, Russia, other CIS countries and Vietnam.