Evotec, Roche form alliance to discover new drugs to treat central nervous diseases

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, June 21 - Roche and Evotec AG said Wednesday that they have formed an alliance to jointly discover and develop compounds against a target for central nervous diseases and other indications.

Leveraging the expertise developed by Evotec on this target, and as part of their central nervous disease drug discovery focus, Evotec and Roche said they will collaborate to identify inhibitors involved in the potential treatment of a range of diseases.

Both companies said they believe that this target is of high priority and that partnering their respective drug discovery efforts and expertise will bring about the successful and timely discovery of new drugs.

"This agreement builds on the strategic alliance that Roche and Evotec have established over the last five years," said Peter Hug, global head of pharma partnering at Roche, in the release.

Roche and Evotec will jointly progress projects up to clinical development, at which stage Roche said it will have exclusive rights to the development of the drug candidates.

In return, Evotec said it will be eligible to receive milestone payments that could exceed €100 million, plus royalties on the sale of any products.

If Roche does not exercise these opt-in rights, Evotec said it will have the right to opt-in, making adjusted payments to Roche.

Evotec is a Hamburg, Germany, biopharmaceutical company.

Roche is a Basel, Switzerland, pharmaceutical and health care products company.

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