RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
UPDATE ON EVT EXECUTE ACTIVITIES IN
expenses amounted to € 12.4 m. The significant increase compared to the previous year was due to higher strategic investments in Cure X and Target X initiatives. Going forward, Evotec will continue to diligently invest in areas that can potentially deliver a significant return in the near term via upfront and research collaboration payments, while at the same time generating a strategic pharmaceutical pipeline of product candidates with milestone- and royalty-bearing potential. The associated costs for contract research conducted under service agreements and R&D alliances with Pharma or biotech companies are not accounted for as R&D expenses in the Company’s P&L but shown under “Costs of revenue”.
UPDATE ON EVT EXECUTE ACTIVITIES IN 2014
New alliances
In March 2014, Evotec began a research alliance with Panion Ltd (“Panion”), a subsidiary of Convergence Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. Convergence is a UK company focused on the development of novel, high value analgesics to treat chronic pain. Panion Ltd was awarded a £ 2.4 m Technology Strategy Board Biomedical Catalyst Early Stage Round 2 grant to discover and develop compounds against a novel GPCR pain target. Within this alliance, Evotec is responsible for undertaking key drug discovery activities and works closely several disease areas through the combination of the relevant platforms of
both organisations for internal and external drug discovery projects. This alliance expands Evotec’s already powerful drug discovery platform with access to a broad range of complementary and highly innovative platforms and capabilities to progress its own innovate projects and provides additional capabilities for customers and partners of Evotec and IME, respectively. In September 2014, Evotec entered into three novel research projects for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis supported in part by research funds from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The respective scientific approaches stem from the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (an institute of the Leibniz Association) and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf comprising cytokine regulation, neuroprotection and tolerance induction. Evotec utilises its drug discovery platform, its project
Expanding the bridge to academia
In July 2014, Evotec announced an exclusive strategic collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (“IME”) in
with the Convergence team to identify pre-clinical candidates over the next three years. Upon meeting certain pre-clinical milestones, Convergence and Evotec will jointly progress the assets further into the clinic or via partnering. In May 2014, Evotec entered into a three-year drug discovery collaboration with Shire to develop novel small molecule inhibitors against a target to treat Fabry’s disease, an inherited lysosomal storage disease. As part of the collaboration, Evotec applies many facets of its world-leading drug discovery engine including high-throughput screening, fragment-based screening, computational chemistry and structure-based medicinal chemistry to address both hit identification and then lead optimisation.
In August 2014, Evotec entered into a multi-year compound management agreement between Evotec (US) Inc. and Medicines for Malaria Venture (“MMV”) in support of MMV’s Malaria and Pathogen Box initiatives. In this collaboration, Evotec leverages its industry-leading and long-standing compound management services to support MMV’s efforts to establish, maintain and distribute vital research tools to the global malaria research community.
Contract extensions and expansions
In September 2014, Evotec and CHDI Foundation, Inc. (“CHDI”) extended and restated their collaboration for a further three years. The collaboration – which aims to find new treatments for Huntington’s disease – involves funding of more than 50 full-time scientists. The collaboration initially began in 2006 and has expanded considerably over this period to fully leverage Evotec’s integrated neuroscience platform. Evotec provides a full range of research activities and expertise in the neuroscience area to CHDI, including integrated biology and chemistry supported by compound and library management, target validation, stem cell research, high-content
screening, computational chemistry, in vitro pharmacokinetics and protein production.
In September 2014, Evotec and Jain Foundation Inc. extended and expanded the collaboration first signed in 2012 and extended in 2013. This next phase of collaboration includes the screening of compound libraries in multiple assay formats to further support the Jain Foundation’s goals of understanding and curing dysferlinopathies, a group of inherited skeletal muscular dystrophy diseases.
In 2014, Evotec also extended and expanded its agreement with Vifor in another mineral deficiency/sufficiency-related therapeutic area and Evotec extended its medicinal chemistry collaboration with Active Biotech. Others
In November 2014, Evotec announced it would establish a protein production and cell services facility on the US East Coast. The new laboratory will become operational in the first quarter of 2015. This addition complements the expansion of such services at the Abingdon facility and is to meet an increasing need to deliver services to major US partners and to reflect the general growth in this area.
In the first half of 2014, Evotec acquired Euprotec, based in Manchester, UK. Euprotec is a leader in anti-infective drug discovery services and has unique capabilities, which augment and complement Evotec’s high-end drug discovery platform such as: anti-infective screening, early PKPD (Pharmacokinetic/Pharmacodynamic) profiling, an extensive range of disease and efficacy models for characterisation of anti-bacterials, anti- fungals, anti-virals and StrainBank (EvostrAIn™), a unique collection of clinical isolates.
Molecule Partner Indication Status Next milestone Commercials
EVT302 Roche Alzheimer’s disease
(MAO-B)
Phase IIb, recruitment completed
Completion of Phase II, Phase III start
$ 10 m upfront, up to $ 820 m milestones, significant royalties
EVT201 JingXin Insomnia Phase II Start clinical trials Milestones, royalties
EVT100 series Janssen CNS diseases (TRD) Phase II/Pre-clinical Confirmation of pre-clinical study/ Phase II start
$ 2 m upfront, up to $ 173 m milestones, significant royalties
Various NEU2 CNS/Multiple sclerosis Pre-clinical/Various ND1) ND1)
Various CHDI Huntington’s disease Discovery ND1) Research payments
ND1) Genentech Neurodegeneration Discovery ND1) Research payments
ND1) Shire Fabry’s disease Discovery ND1) Research payments
TargetAD Johnson & Johnson Innovation Alzheimer’s disease (Novel MoA2)) Discovery ND1) Up to $ 10 m research payments, approx. $ 125-145 m milestones, royalties TargetASIC BMBF, undisclosed Pharma
Multiple sclerosis Discovery Lead status Co-funded
CureMN Harvard Amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis
ND1) Pharma partnership –
CNS/Neurology pipeline overview
EVT770 MedImmune/ AstraZeneca
Type 1 and 2 diabetes (beta cell regeneration
Pre-clinical Phase I € 5 m upfront, high margin research payments, up to € 254 m milestones/ product, significant royalties
ALM MedImmune/
AstraZeneca
Type 1 and 2 diabetes (beta cell regeneration)
Discovery Phase I € 2 m upfront, high margin research
payments, up to € 183 m milestones/ product, significant royalties
Various AstraZeneca Kidney disease ND1) ND1) Undisclosed upfront, high margin
research payments, milestones/product, royalties
TargetEEM Harvard Type 1 and 2 diabetes (enteroendocrine mechanisms)
Discovery Pharma partnership –
CureNephron Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Chronic kidney disease Discovery Pharma partnership –
Somatoprim (DG3173)
Aspireo Acromegaly/NET Phase IIa Pharma partnership Consulting fees, royalties
ND1) Boehringer
Ingelheim
Oncology Phase I ND1) Research payments, milestones,
royalties
ND1)/Biomarker Roche Oncology Phase I ND1) Success-based milestones
ND1) Boehringer
Ingelheim
Oncology Pre-clinical ND1) Research payments, milestones,
royalties TargetImmuniT Apeiron Various
(Immunotherapy)
Discovery Pharma partnership Shared research costs, milestones, royalties
TargetKDM Belfer Institute Various
(Epigenetic targets)
Discovery Pharma partnership ND1)
TargetDBR Yale University Glioblastoma (brain tumour)
Discovery Pharma partnership ND1)
TargetCanMet Debiopharm Various Discovery ND1) Research payments, milestones,
royalties
EVT401 CONBA Inflammation
(P2X7 inhibitor)
Phase I/II Phase II start Up to € 60 m milestones, royalties Various Bayer Endometriosis Pre-clinical Pre-clinical candidate € 12 m upfront, up to € 580 m
milestones, royalties Various Boehringer
Ingelheim
Various/Pain Pre-clinical Phase I start Undisclosed upfront, research payments, milestones, royalties
ND1) Novartis Various/Pain Pre-clinical Successful PoC3) Research payments, milestones,
royalties
Various UCB Inflammation Discovery Pre-clinical Research payments, up to € 183 m
milestones/product, significant royalties
ND1) Convergence Pain Discovery Pre-clinical Milestones, significant royalties
TargetPicV Haplogen Viral host targets Discovery Pre-clinical candidate –
TargetPGB Harvard Antibiotics Discovery Pre-clinical candidate –
Molecule Partner Indication Status Next milestone Commercials
Diabetes and diabetic complications pipeline overview
Oncology pipeline overview
Pain and inflammation pipeline overview
Anti-infectives pipeline overview
1) Not disclosed
2) Mode of Action 3) Proof of Concept
All clinical projects are fully financed by partners but Evotec retains a significant stake in these projects in terms of milestones and royalties. An overview of this pipeline is given in the “Status of advanced drug candidates” table on page 34 of this Management Report.
Evotec provides a detailed overview of achievements in research and development in the “Research and development performance” section of the “Performance measurement” chapter on page 32 of this Management Report.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT –