Evotec and Roche form global drug discovery alliance

Roche and Evotec have formed an alliance to jointly discover and develop compounds against a target for CNS diseases and other indications.

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

Both companies 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 Dr Peter Hug, global head of pharma partnering at Roche.

Roche and Evotec will jointly progress projects up to clinical development, at which stage Roche will have exclusive rights to the development of the drug candidates. In return, Evotec will be eligible to receive milestone payments that could exceed Euro 100m in total, plus royalties on the sale of any products. If Roche does not exercise these opt-in rights, Evotec will have the right to opt-in, making adjusted payments to Roche.