24. September 2019 Evotec and Takeda enter collaboration

Evotec SE announced a strategic, multi-year drug discovery collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”). Under the collaboration, the parties aim to establish at least five drug discovery programmes with the goal of Evotec delivering clinical candidates for Takeda to pursue into clinical development. “Collaborating with world-class drug discovery partners like Evotec is central to our model for discovering and developing transformative medicines,” said Steve Hitchcock, Ph.D., Global Head of Research at Takeda. “Takeda has a long history of working with Evotec and is confident in Evotec’s capabilities.” The collaboration combines Evotec’s ability to effectively drive fully integrated drug discovery programmes with Takeda’s strategic insights into transformative therapeutic approaches in Takeda’s four core therapeutic areas: Oncology, Gastroenterology, Neuroscience and Rare Diseases, as well as Takeda’s development and commercialisation expertise. Evotec will leverage its industry-leading discovery platform to validate therapeutic hypotheses and advance small molecule programmes with Takeda having options to assume responsibility at lead series and upon Evotec delivering a pre-clinical candidate. Under the terms of the collaboration, Takeda will pay Evotec a one-time, upfront fee to access its platforms. Additionally, Evotec is eligible to receive pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial milestones that can total in excess of $ 170 m per programme as well as tiered royalties on future sales. Dr Craig Johnstone, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, added: “We are pleased to enter into another collaboration with Takeda, whose values are aligned with Evotec’s, including a shared commitment to translating highest quality science into highly innovative medicines. We believe this collaboration will be very fruitful for both parties and we are excited to combine our resources and skills to produce novel therapies.” Source: Evotec from September 24th 2019, https://www.evotec.com/en/invest/news--announcements/press-releases/p/evotec-and-takeda-enter-collaboration-agreement-to-discover-clinical-candidates-across-multiple-therapeutic-areas-5847