Hamburg, Germany - 10 July 2012: Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock
Exchange: EVT, TecDAX) today announced that it has licensed to
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a portfolio of small molecules and
biologics designed to trigger the regeneration of insulin-producing beta
cells.
Under the terms of this license and collaboration agreement, Janssen
will receive exclusive access to a series of candidates designed to
trigger the regeneration of insulin-producing beta cells. The small
molecules and biologics were identified by scientists in the Harvard
University laboratory of Douglas Melton, and further analyzed in
collaboration with scientists from Evotec, as part of the CureBeta
research and development program.
The agreement between Evotec and Janssen triggers an upfront
payment of US $8 million. Upon achievement of certain pre-clinical,
clinical, regulatory and commercial goals, Janssen would make future
milestone payments, of up to a total of about US $200 million to US
$300 million per product. In addition, Janssen will pay royalties on
future sales of any products that result from this collaboration. The
upfront, milestone and royalty payments will be shared by Evotec and
Harvard according to pre-agreed terms. Evotec will receive additional
research support for discovery and early development work that will be
conducted in collaboration with Janssen.
The CureBeta initiative was established by Harvard, the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and Evotec in 2011 to leverage the
assets and expertise in industry and academia to identify and develop
disease-state modifying therapeutic targets. To that end, Evotec’s Dr.
Cord Dohrmann and Harvard University Professor and Howard Hughes
Medical Institute Investigator Doug Melton, recognized leaders in the
field of beta cell research, began a unique international collaboration.
During the initial period of the collaboration, Evotec, HHMI, and
Harvard established new standards in beta cell regeneration in terms
of assays and tools as well as novel high potential targets. Janssen
Pharmaceuticals will provide industrial scope and scale as well as
pharmaceutical development expertise and marketing capabilities.
Dr. Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec,
commented: "Our collaboration with Doug Melton‘s laboratory has
been extremely successful on multiple levels. We have not only
achieved our scientific goals of creating a superior beta cell drug
discovery platform and generating a deep pipeline of novel and
exciting targets, but we have also established a new model of
collaboration between academia and industry that has proven highly
efficient and effective in accelerating innovative scientific development.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals perfectly complements this effort, bringing in
world-leading pharmaceutical development expertise as well as the
necessary resources to execute on our mission to produce first-in-class
therapeutics designed to restore beta cell mass and function."
"Our collaboration with Evotec supports our mission of accelerating
scientific research from the lab to the clinic," said Isaac T. Kohlberg,
Harvard's chief technology development officer and head of its
Office of Technology Development. "As the funding and licensing
landscape has evolved in the pharmaceutical industry, we have
evolved to identify new development strategies for our research
assets. This alliance with Janssen Pharmaceuticals represents an
important step towards a real solution for the treatment of diabetes."
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) comments from
Dr. Richard Insel, Chief Scientific Officer: “We are delighted to see
Evotec, Dr. Doug Melton, and Janssen launch this collaborative
partnership and commitment to develop innovative regenerative
medicine therapies for diabetes. JDRF has been actively supporting
research in the field of beta cell regenerative therapies, including other
collaborative partnering programs with Evotec and Janssen
Pharmaceuticals. JDRF looks forward to supporting the CureBeta
initiative.”
