Evotec to acquire Aptuit, expanding leadership in external innovation

Published: 4-Aug-2017

Evotec and Aptuit have entered into a definitive agreement, Evotec will acquire Aptuit for US$ 300 million

As a partner research organisation for integrated outsourced drug discovery and development solutions, Aptuit offers highly synergistic scientific expertise across drug discovery, pre-clinical testing and both drug substance and drug product manufacturing, to its Biopharma partners.

The transaction will strengthen Evotec's position in the external innovation marketplace, adding considerable business opportunities to further accelerate Evotec's long-term strategy to be the industry partner of choice for external innovation.

Combination provides comprehensive and efficient offering

Aptuit provides a complete set of integrated early discovery to mid-phase drug development services in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with a proven track record over many years.

As a partner, it is defined by its excellence in science, defined outcomes, highly efficient solutions and accelerated timeframes to progress drugs to clinical testing. Aptuit has a very strong network in small, medium and large Biopharma and a high level of repeat business.

Jonathan Goldman, CEO of Aptuit, said: "I am delighted that Aptuit's unique value proposition of world-class scientists have combined with the Evotec team to create a best-in-class company.

"The operational management team and I look forward to continuing to offer customers an expanded set of solutions in discovery as part of the Evotec family as well as providing an end to end solution in candidate to IND (INDiGO) and Phase I to commercial integrated CMC needs."

All of Evotec's offerings benefit from extended capabilities

Evotec's drug discovery value proposition is to offer integrated services up to delivering pre-clinical development candidates (PDC). The acquisition of Aptuit grows Evotec's business substantially and extends the value chain offering through to Investigational New Drug (IND) submission and beyond to integrated drug substance and drug product and commercial manufacture.

Evotec's business model increasingly relies on the progression of pre-clinical candidates through to the clinic and beyond. With Aptuit's IND enabling capabilities, especially through the INDiGO(R) platform, Evotec will increasingly control and accelerate the IND submission of its partnered products.

Dr Werner Lanthaler, CEO of Evotec, said: "Bringing together two major players in the drug discovery industry is a big step forward for Evotec to expand our unique focus in external innovation for Pharma, biotech and foundations. We are very much looking forward to welcoming the employees of Aptuit within the Evotec Group after closing of the transaction."

The acquisition also provides the opportunity for EVT Innovate to access additional capacity and industry-proven expertise for its growing portfolio of projects. Aptuit's team of scientists and managers represents a unique asset for Evotec, with the strong cultural fit between Aptuit and Evotec expected to help achieve a smooth and successful integration into the global footprint of Evotec.

Strong financials

Aptuit has a strong growing financial profile, with reported 2016 revenues of about €88 million, expected 2017 revenues of approx. €100-110m and an adjusted EBITDA of €11m for 2016 (EUR/$ fx rate of 1.17).

Current growth rates of Aptuit are above the general market growth. Certain central costs that are not required on an ongoing basis will be retained by the seller and wound down. These costs represent approx. €4.5m and enable Evotec to achieve these synergies from closing and reduce implementation costs and execution risk.

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