Hamburg, Germany I Oxford, UK - 21 July 2009: Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT; NASDAQ: EVTC), a leading provider in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs, today announced a collaboration with Alios Biopharma, Inc in the area of high throughput screening (HTS).
Alios BioPharma, Inc. is a biotechnology company that is developing novel medicines that treat diseases in virology by activating pathways in the innate immune system.
Evotec will use its proprietary ultra-HTS platform and technology to screen a priority biological target for Alios. Evotec's HTS technology has been developed in collaboration with its pharmaceutical partners Pfizer, Novartis and GSK. It combines an ultra sensitive detection technology with a miniaturized screening format providing a throughput unrivalled within the industry. In addition, Alios will access Evotec's high quality small molecule screening library for the screen.
Dr Leonid Beigelman, Executive Vice President of Research, from Alios commented: "Evotec has compiled a small molecule screening library that provides excellent diversity and high quality. This, combined with their exceptional HTS technology makes them an ideal partner for screening our important target with the aim of finding high quality hits for our subsequent medicinal chemistry efforts."
Evotec's EVP, Business Development, Dr Mark Ashton commented on the collaboration: "We are pleased that Alios have chosen Evotec to provide HTS support for their important target. We are excited about identifying new hits for their program and supporting them in their quest for new treatments for virology diseases."
No financial details are disclosed.
About Evotec AG
Evotec is a leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs. The Company has built substantial drug discovery expertise and an industrialized platform that can drive new innovative small molecule compounds into the clinic. In addition, Evotec has built a deep internal knowledge base in the treatment of diseases related to neuroscience, pain, and inflammation. Leveraging these skills and expertise the Company intends to develop best-in-class differentiated therapeutics and deliver superior science-driven discovery alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Evotec has long-term discovery alliances with partners including Boehringer Ingelheim, CHDI, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical and Roche. The Company has a P2X7 antagonist for the treatment of inflammatory diseases in clinical development and a series of preclinical compounds and development partnerships, including a strategic alliance with Roche for EVT 101, a subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonist, for use in treatment-resistant depression.
For additional information please go to www.evotec.com
About Alios Biopharma, Inc
Alios BioPharma, Inc. is a biotechnology company located in South San Francisco, California that is developing novel medicines that treat diseases in virology by activating pathways in the innate immune system. Alios is pursuing the development of both protein and small molecule therapeutics, each addressing major commercial market opportunities. Alios is discovering and developing novel therapeutic agents based on three platform technologies including: small molecule activators of innate immunity antiviral pathways (RNase L activation), phosphate protected nucleotide prodrug chemistry, and glycoprotein-engineering of interferons (Glycoferon®). This complementary group of platform technologies has the potential to generate a number of distinct therapeutic products to treat a variety of serious viral infections such as chronic hepatitis B and C, HIV infection, and respiratory viruses (e.g. pandemic influenza) and emerging viral diseases (e.g. SARS). For additional information please go to www.aliosbiopharma.com