U.S. drugmaker Wyeth has signed an alliance with Britain's Biotica Technology Ltd that could earn the privately held biotech firm up to $195 million, if new medicines are successfully brought to market.

The two companies said on Wednesday their research collaboration and licence agreement would focus on the development of novel rapamycin analogs against a range of diseases.

Biotica, which was spun out of Cambridge University, has granted Wyeth worldwide rights to its most advanced drug candidates, as well as access to the technology to discover new compounds.

Biotica uses biosynthetic engineering to create compounds that are not easily made using conventional synthetic chemistry, including new versions of rapamycin, which forms the basis of several immunosuppressant, anti-infective and experimental cancer drugs.