Evotec and Lilly enter into drug discovery collaboration in metabolic diseases

 

  • COLLABORATION LEVERAGES EVOTEC’S BROAD METABOLIC EXPERTISE AND UNIQUE KIDNEY DISEASE PATIENT DATABASE AS WELL AS INTEGRATED DATA-DRIVEN DRUG DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS
  • LILLY HAS THE RIGHT TO SELECT UP TO FIVE PROGRAMMES 

 

Hamburg, Germany, 18 January 2022:
Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809; NASDAQ: EVO) announced today that the Company has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (“Lilly”) in the field of metabolic diseases with a focus on kidney diseases and diabetes. 

The collaboration leverages Evotec’s extensive experience and track record of delivering in the field of metabolic diseases, as well as its unique and extensive kidney disease patient database, to identify and validate promising novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Evotec will be responsible for the discovery of potential drug candidates for the treatment of diabetes and chronic kidney diseases from targets identified by Lilly or by Evotec. Lilly reserves the right to select up to five programmes developed within this partnership and to continue with any subsequent development, clinical validation and commercialisation.

The collaboration initially runs for a term of three years. In addition to an undisclosed upfront payment, Evotec will be eligible to receive success-based discovery development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to US$ 180 m per programme, as well as tiered royalties on net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration, for a potential overall value up to US$ 1 bn. 

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: “We are excited to enter into this research partnership with Lilly. Over a period of several years, Evotec has systematically built a proprietary patient database by conducting multi-omics analyses of biospecimens from patient biobanks covering metabolic and kidney diseases. Evotec’s patient-derived molecular data in combination with our omics-supported multimodality drug discovery platform delivers highest quality drug candidates for our partners. We are proud to collaborate with Lilly in diabetes and kidney diseases as they are one of the leading companies in these areas.”

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS 

This announcement contains forward-looking statements concerning future events, including the proposed offering and listing of Evotec’s securities. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “potential,” “should,” “target,” “would” and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements include comments regarding completion of the offering. These forward-looking statements are based on the information available to, and the expectations and assumptions deemed reasonable by Evotec at the time these statements were made. No assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates, which are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of Evotec. Evotec expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in Evotec’s expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.