Evotec AG announced that its multi-target collaboration with Bayer HealthCare has reached two significant pre-clinical milestones in two projects for the possible treatment for endometriosis, moving those projects into late-stage discovery and pre-clinical development.
According to a press release, the goal of the partnership, started in October 2012, has been to develop three clinical candidates by 2017, with each company contributing drug targets and technology facilities as well as sharing responsibility for early research and pre-clinical characterization of potential candidates for new endometriosis treatments.
As a consequence of this alliance, Evotec may receive pre-clinical, clinical and sales milestones of potentially up to approximately EUR 580 million, plus eventual royalties of up to low double digit percent of net sales, depending on which company brought the compound to the collaboration and the successful development and approval of potential drug candidates.
Dr Mario Polywka, Evotec’s COO stated in a press release,’Women with endometriosis may experience excruciating and chronic pain. Because endometriosis affects women in childbearing age, there is an incredible need for new, non-surgical treatments that will preserve fertility and alleviate pain. Evotec brings into this collaboration potential drug candidates and its extensive know-how in the area of chronic pain. These milestones represent further good progress in addressing both the underlying inflammation as well as the resulting pain and reflect well on the tremendous combined efforts of both teams of scientists from Evotec and Bayer. We look forward to continuing this productive work and focusing our efforts on bringing forward new drug candidates to tackle this significant disease.”
‘Endometriosis is a disease with insufficient treatment options today for women who suffer from this painful condition”, said Prof Andreas Busch, Member of the Bayer HealthCare Executive Committee and Head of Global Drug Discovery. He further added that this disease is one of Bayer’s strategic research indications, and the collaboration with Evotec complements the company’s activities in this field of high unmet medical need.
Evotec AG is a drug discovery and development partnership company providing high quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery solutions, covering all activities from target-to-clinic. It has substantial experience in areas like neuroscience, pain, metabolic diseases, oncology, and inflammation and infectious diseases.
Bayer HealthCare, a subgroup of Bayer AG, is one of the world’s leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry, whose aim is to discover, develop, manufacture and market products to improve human and animal health worldwide.