Evotec enters a drug discovery collaboration with Janssen

Evotec SE announced that the Company has entered a drug discovery collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson (“Janssen”). Evotec’s innovative TargetAlloMod platforms will be evaluated to discover first-in-class novel mode of action therapeutic candidates. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Under the agreement, Evotec and Janssen will jointly conduct screens on the identified targets and collaborate with hit identification and lead optimisation of the most promising chemical assets, leveraging Evotec’s end-to-end integrated drug discovery and development platform.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: “We are very proud to enter into this collaboration to explore unique approaches to high potential cell surface drug targets with novel therapeutic modalities and to deliver and make innovative therapeutic options available to patients.”

Besides research funding, Evotec is entitled to success-based research and commercial milestones up to approximately € 210 m per project as well as tiered royalties on products resulting from this collaboration.