Evotec earns first milestone in collaboration with Takeda for Alzheimer's disease target

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 6 - Evotec AG said Tuesday that the first milestone has been achieved in its four-year drug discovery collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Evotec has granted Takeda exclusive rights in a novel target in Alzheimer's disease based on successful target identification and validation work triggering a milestone payment of a few millions euros, according to a company news release.

Evotec said it is eligible for further substantial milestone payments on the successful clinical development of compounds acting on the selected target. Work is progressing, officials said, adding that Evotec is entitled to additional milestone payments should Takeda, based in Osaka, Japan, select additional targets from Evotec.

The collaboration is aimed at jointly identifying and validating novel targets relating to different aspects of the causes and progression of Alzheimer's disease with the goal of developing innovative small molecule therapeutics.

Total payments will reach up to €20 million covering access fees to Evotec's proprietary database of Alzheimer's disease-related targets, research funding and success-based milestone payments relating to the selection of targets for further drug discovery. Additional substantial milestones also would be payable on the successful clinical development of compounds acting on selected targets, officials said.

Further financial details were not disclosed.

Evotec is a Hamburg, Germany, small-molecule drug discovery company.

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