Evotec achieves second milestone in diabetes alliance with Sanofi

Evotec AG announced that its strategic alliance (TargetBCD) with Sanofi in the field of diabetes has reached its second beta cell therapy milestone, resulting in a payment of € 3 million to Evotec.

This milestone was triggered after Evotec met pre-agreed critical success criteria for a potential manufacturing process for generation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived beta cells, including the demonstration of upscaling potential and suitability of the cell product for encapsulated beta cell function in diabetes models. The goal of the collaboration is to develop a beta cell replacement therapy based on beta cells derived from human iPS cells.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: “Diabetes is one of the major threats to global healthcare with over 420 million people across the globe affected by either type 1 and type 2 diabetes. We are very pleased with the progress we are making towards a potential game changing beta cell therapy approach and remain committed to discover additional treatment options together with our colleagues at Sanofi.”