Evotec and Celgene Enter into Strategic Oncology Partnership

Evotec AG announced today that Evotec and Celgene Corporation have entered into a long-term strategic drug discovery and development partnership to identify new therapeutics in oncology.

Evotec has built one of the industry’s broadest and most innovative pre-clinical discovery and development platforms. This includes in particular an industry-leading phenotypic screening platform with unique compound libraries and associated target deconvolution capabilities. The collaboration intends to leverage these capabilities with an initial focus on solid tumours.

Celgene receives exclusive opt-in rights to license worldwide rights to all programmes developed within this collaboration. Under the terms of the agreement, Evotec will receive an upfront payment of $ 65 m and may be eligible to receive significant milestone payments as well as tiered royalties on each licensed programme.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, said: “We are extremely pleased and encouraged about the opportunity to enter into a second major alliance with our colleagues at Celgene. Our first alliance in neurodegenerative diseases has already proven that both companies and teams are united by the same spirit and objectives bringing new and better treatment to patients.”