DGAP-News: Evotec AG / Key word(s): Alliance
15.12.2016 / 22:19
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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* Exclusive broad R&D collaboration based on Evotec's unique induced
pluripotent stem cell ("iPSC") platform which enables systematic drug
screening in patient-derived disease models
Hamburg, Germany, 15 December 2016:
Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809)
announced today that Evotec and Celgene Corporation have entered into a
strategic drug discovery and development collaboration to identify
disease-modifying therapeutics for a broad range of neurodegenerative
diseases. Initial disease areas of focus will include Amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple other
neurodegenerative disorders.
Evotec has built an industrialised iPSC infrastructure that represents one
of the largest and most sophisticated iPSC platforms in the industry.
Evotec's iPSC platform has been developed over the last five years with the
goal to industrialise iPSC-based drug screening in terms of throughput,
reproducibility and robustness to reach the highest industrial standards.
This effort was enabled by a research collaboration and licence agreement
with Harvard University involving world-leading scientists at the Harvard
Stem Cell Institute. In particular, a collaboration termed CureMotorNeuron
that was initiated in 2013 with the laboratories of Professors Kevin Eggan,
PhD, and Lee Rubin, PhD, resulted in significant contributions to the
platform. Additional aspects of the platform were built up through Evotec's
more than 10-year collaboration with the CHDI Foundation in the field of
Huntington's disease.
Under the terms of the agreement, Evotec will receive an upfront payment of
$ 45 m. Celgene holds exclusive options to in-license worldwide rights to
Evotec programmes developed from the company's compound library. Evotec may
be eligible to receive up to $ 250 m in milestones as well as up to low
double-digit royalties on in-licensed programmes. As part of the
collaboration, Celgene may also elect to screen compounds from its
proprietary CELMoD(R) library using Evotec's iPSC platform to evaluate
activity in models of neurodegenerative diseases. The initial term of the
collaboration is five years.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, said: "We are very
excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Celgene, a medical
innovation leader in the industry. Celgene perfectly complements and
accelerates our business model and vision in bringing first-in-class
therapeutics to patients with neurodegenerative diseases, where the burden
for society is increasing dramatically."
Dr Rupert Vessey, EVP and President of Research and Early Development of
Celgene, commented: "We are very pleased to enter into our first
neurodegeneration collaboration with Evotec and look forward to the
screening of their compound libraries using their proprietary iPSC
platform. Recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the mechanism of
action of the CELMoD(R) library may enable the discovery of other related
compounds that can direct the degradation of proteins known to be
neurotoxic. Screening for this activity in highly controlled cell-based
screens developed by Evotec represents an excellent initial approach for
drug discovery in neurodegenerative disorders."
Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, added: "The fact that
many promising drug candidates fail during clinical development highlights
the limited predictive and translational value of pre-clinical disease
models commonly used during the drug discovery process. This is
particularly true for neurodegenerative diseases, a field that has proven
intractable as novel therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's
disease, and motor neuron disease have largely failed. The use of
patient-derived disease models for drug screening represents a paradigm
shift as it places the testing of human disease relevance at the front end
of the drug discovery process and is expected to lead to the discovery of
more disease-relevant drug candidates but also more focused clinical
development paths."
Webcast/Conference Call
Given the innovative character of the alliance, Evotec invites you to join
a brief conference call. The conference will be held in English.
Conference call details
Date: Friday, 16 December 2016
Time: 02.00 pm CET (01.00 pm GMT, 08.00 am EST)
From Germany: +49 (0) 69 22 22 29 043
From UK: +44 20 3009 2452
From USA: +1 855 402 7766
From France: +33 170 750 705
Access Code: 37969784#
A simultaneous slide presentation for participants dialling in via phone is
available at
http://www.audio-webcast.com/, password: evotec1216.
Webcast details
To join the audio webcast and to access the presentation slides you will
find a link on our home page www.evotec.com shortly before the event.
A replay of the conference call will be available for 24 hours and can be
accessed by dialling +49 (0) 69 22 22 33 985 (Germany) or +44 20 3426 2807
(UK) and in the USA by dialling +1 866 535 8030. The access code is
654573#. The on-demand version of the webcast will be available on our
website:
https://www.evotec.com/article/en/Investors/Financial-Reports-2014-2016/18
8/6.
ABOUT IPSC
Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a
type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult
cells. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka's lab in Kyoto,
Japan, who showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific genes
encoding transcription factors could convert adult cells into pluripotent
stem cells. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon
"for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become
pluripotent". Pluripotent stem cells hold great promise in the field of
regenerative medicine. Because they can propagate indefinitely, as well as
give rise to every other cell type in the body (such as neurons, heart,
pancreatic and liver cells), they represent a single source of cells that
could be used to replace those lost to damage or disease. (Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_pluripotent_stem_cell)
ABOUT CUREMOTORNEURON
CureMotorNeuron was a research collaboration in the field of amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis ("ALS") between scientists at Evotec and at Harvard
University, specifically Harvard Stem Cell Institute ("HSCI"), aiming to
identify compounds that prevent or slow down the loss of motor neurons,
which is characteristic for ALS. Launched in 2013, the research initiative
leveraged human motor neuron assays based on ALS patient-derived induced
pluripotent stem cells that were developed by Professors Kevin Eggan, PhD,
and Lee Rubin, PhD at Harvard, as well as Evotec's drug discovery
infrastructure and expertise to identify compounds that may have
therapeutic value against this life-threatening disease.
ABOUT EVOTEC AG
Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company
focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy
groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide providing the highest
quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery solutions, covering all
activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation
and efficiency in drug discovery (EVT Execute).The Company has established
a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and
integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience
and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuroscience, diabetes and
complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology and infectious
diseases. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of more
than 70 partnered product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and
discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term
discovery alliances with partners including Bayer, CHDI, Sanofi or UCB and
development partnerships with e.g. Janssen Pharmaceuticals in the field of
Alzheimer's disease, with Sanofi in the field of diabetes and with Pfizer
in the field of tissue fibrosis. For additional information please go to
www.evotec.com.
ABOUT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
Alzheimer's disease ("AD") is an irreversible, progressive brain disease
and the main cause for dementia. It slowly destroys brain cells and nerves
and thus disrupts the transmission in the brain, particularly those
responsible for storing memories. In the course of AD, the brain shrinks as
gaps develop in the temporal lobe and hippocampus, which are responsible
for storing and retrieving new information. Beside degeneration of neurons,
typical pathological hallmarks for AD are beta amyloid plaques and
neurofibrillary tangles composed by Tau protein in the brain. The cause and
progression of AD however are still not completely understood. Like other
chronic conditions, scientists believe that AD doesn't have one predominant
cause, but is rather a complex result of various factors. At the moment,
there is no cure available for AD and most other causes for dementia.
Current treatments only tackle the symptoms of the disease. According to
Alzheimer's Disease International, there were 47 million people diagnosed
with dementia in 2015 worldwide. It is estimated that this number is going
to increase to more than 130 million people in 2050. Approximately 10
million new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year. Concerning the
dementia market volume, $ 818 bn are yearly spent as of today on the
treatment of dementia and it will become a trillion dollar disease by 2018.
All in all, these costs equal about 1% of the world's GDP (average of GDP
from countries worldwide).
ABOUT PARKINSON'S DISEASE
Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that
is characterised by well-known motor symptoms including tremors, stiffness
of limbs, slowness of movements and difficulties with posture and balance,
as well as by non-motor symptoms. The cause is unknown, and although there
is presently no cure, there are treatment options such as medication and
surgery to manage its symptoms. Parkinson's disease is more common in
people over 60 years of age and its prevalence is expected to increase
significantly as the average age of the population increases. Estimates of
the number of people living with the disease therefore vary, but recent
research indicates that at least one million people in the United States,
and more than five million worldwide, have Parkinson's disease. (Source:
MJFF and Parkinson's Disease Foundation).
ABOUT AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ("ALS") - also referred to as motor neuron
disease or Lou Gehrig's disease in some part of the United States - is a
debilitating disease with varied etiology characterised by rapidly
progressive weakness, muscle atrophy and fasciculations, muscle spasticity,
difficulty speaking (dysarthria), difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) and
difficulty breathing (dyspnea). ALS is the most common of the five motor
neuron diseases. The disorder induces muscle weakness and atrophy
throughout the body caused by the degeneration of the upper and lower motor
neurons. Unable to function, the muscles weaken and atrophy. Individuals
affected by the disorder may ultimately lose the ability to initiate and
control all voluntary movement, although bladder and bowel sphincters and
the muscles responsible for eye movement are usually, but not always,
spared until the terminal stages of the disease. The majority of people
with ALS die within 3-5 years from the onset of the symptoms; only about
10% of the people with ALS survive for 10 years or more. ALS mainly affects
people between the ages of 40 and 70, with an average age of 55 at the time
of diagnosis. Generally, ALS is 20% more common in men than women. The
incidence of ALS is 2 per 100,000 people and there are about 150,000
patients diagnosed with ALS worldwide.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking
statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The
forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of
Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking
statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a
variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control,
and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any
obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to
any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change
in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based.
Contact Evotec AG:
Gabriele Hansen, VP Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, Phone:
+49.(0)40.56081-255, gabriele.hansen@evotec.com
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15.12.2016 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
service of EQS Group AG.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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Language: English
Company: Evotec AG
Manfred Eigen Campus / Essener Bogen 7
22419 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 560 81-0
Fax: +49 (0)40 560 81-222
E-mail: info@evotec.com
Internet: www.evotec.com
ISIN: DE0005664809
WKN: 566480
Indices: TecDAX
Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated
Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover,
Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange
End of News DGAP News Service