Molecular Design

At Evotec, we recognize that the fundamental characteristics of a molecule, such as activity, selectivity, physical properties, disposition, half-life, and safety, are determined by its molecular structure. For this reason we place immense value on exceptional molecular design.

Our teams in Abingdon, UK, Toulouse, France, and Verona, Italy consist of skilled medicinal chemists, computational chemists, structural biologists, and DMPK scientists who have made significant contributions to numerous discovery projects throughout their careers. With over 100 development candidates, they have been named inventors and authors on more than 860 patents and publications.

Our diverse and experienced scientists have achieved success across various therapeutic areas, target classes, and routes of administration. They have developed receptor ligands, ion channel modulators, enzyme inhibitors, and inhibitors of protein-protein interactions to preclinical development and beyond. We possess expertise in both protein structure-guided and ligand-based design, utilizing robust computational models and internal knowledge to optimize drug disposition, including optimal or restricted CNS exposure.

Medicinal Chemists

Our Medicinal Chemistry teams prioritize high-quality design and efficient decision-making. Leveraging advanced visualization, analysis, and design software tools, our chemists blend human creativity with extensive knowledge and experience to generate innovative design ideas. Our focus is always on producing the right compounds, concurrently optimizing biological activity and ADME properties to expedite the path to candidate selection. We firmly believe that the synergy and collaboration between synthetic and medicinal chemistry, computational science, structural biology, and DMPK enhance design quality, problem-solving, inventive analysis, and effective communication both internally and with our partners.

Molecular Architects

Our Molecular Architects group focus on the early adoption of emerging in silico methods for generative molecular design, exemplifying the value of technologies before applying them to accelerate collaborative projects. Working in close union with a dedicated systems and methods development group enables new tools to be created, validated and incorporated into projects rapidly. The adoption of new AI/ML tools reinforces process efficiency with quality and timely decision processes.

To ensure optimal efficiency, we continuously evaluate and enhance our internal processes, including compound management, analysis, registration, and dispatch, implementing lean methodologies whenever possible. Our company-wide electronic lab notebook system, internal LIMS system for compound submissions, project-specific databases, and workflows facilitate rapid data sharing within teams and with our clients. By emphasizing a streamlined "design-make-test-analyze" cycle, we achieve key project milestones in shorter timeframes, foster increased knowledge and experience through more learning cycles, deliver superior quality output, make informed decisions to minimize waste, and cultivate effective and efficient teams.