Roche Holding AG (ROGN.VX) and Evotec AG (EVT.XE) Friday said they were working today to jointly develop biomarkers in oncology.

The two companies will carry out a collaboration in novel protein-activity based biomarkers for Roche's oncology drugs which are under development.

Evotec AG will employ its PhosphoScout platform to discover protein-phosphorylation's that predict favorable dosage and efficacy of targeted cancer drugs in patients.

Roche will be responsible for conducting clinical trials as well as assessing the development of companion diagnostics for patient stratification.

"We are very pleased to collaborate with Evotec AG and benefit from the PhosphoScout technology to identify appropriate pharmacodynamics and patient stratification biomarkers," said Mike Burgess, Global Head of Oncology, Roche Pharma Research and Exploratory Development in a statement.

"These biomarkers are core to the development of targeted therapeutics for cancer therapy."

-By John Revill, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 8042 ; john.revill@dowjones.com