Evotec and Takeda Enter into Multi-Year Gene Therapy Research Alliance

• TAKEDA LEVERAGES EVOTEC’S NEW GENE THERAPY UNIT TO ACCELERATE RESEARCH PROGRAMMES ACROSS TAKEDA’S THERAPEUTIC AREAS
• MULTI-YEAR ALLIANCE FUELS EXPANSION OF EVOTEC GENE THERAPY (“EVOTEC GT”)

HAMBURG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / April 6, 2020 / Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) today announced that Evotec GT, with operations in Austria, has established a long-term research alliance with Takeda to support Takeda’s growing number of research stage gene therapy discovery programmes.

Evotec GT is an integral part of Evotec’s integrated fully modality-agnostic drug discovery platform that combines all activities involved with the discovery, development, and manufacturing of therapeutics along the value chain.

Under the alliance, Evotec will support multiple Takeda programmes targeting conditions aligned with Takeda’s four core therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Diseases, Neuroscience and Gastroenterology. The alliance leverages Evotec’s growing gene therapy capabilities as well as Evotec’s broader drug discovery platform.

Dr Steven Hitchcock, Global Head of Research for Takeda, said: “We are excited to be broadening and expanding our discovery efforts with the Evotec team. Gene therapy is a growing therapeutic approach in our portfolio and this alliance with Evotec will help us further accelerate our delivery of transformative therapies for patients, particularly those with rare diseases.”

Dr Craig Johnstone, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, commented: “We’re pleased to expand the scope of our collaboration with Takeda into gene therapy by establishing an alliance with Takeda. This new alliance demonstrates the value of our multimodality platform with innovative technologies and best-in-class execution for addressing the most urgent requirements of our partners. Relationships like this will transform industry’s approach to drug discovery and development to ultimately find new therapies.”

No financial details of the agreement were disclosed.

ABOUT EVOTEC SE
Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide and our more than 3,000 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. We cover all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry’s need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases, fibrosis, rare diseases and women’s health. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter @Evotec.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Contact Evotec SE:
Gabriele Hansen, SVP Corporate Communications, Marketing & Investor Relations, Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-255, gabriele.hansen@evotec.com

SOURCE: Evotec AG via EQS Newswire

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