Celgene expands collaboration with Evotec

German biotech Evotec (EVT: Xetra) today revealed that it will receive a $6 million payment from Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) following Celgene's decision to expand the collaboration to include additional cell lines.

Evotec and Celgene initiated the collaboration in December 2016 to identify disease-modifying treatments for a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases. Currently approved drugs only offer short-term management of the patients' symptoms and there is a huge unmet medical need for therapeutic modalities that slow down or reverse disease progression. The collaboration pursues an innovative approach to the discovery and development of novel medicines by leveraging Evotec's unique human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology platform, which is one of the largest and most sophisticated platforms in the industry.

"This achievement is the latest example of the performance of our scientists and reflects continuous investment to enhance and expand Evotec's iPSC platform. We are confident that the extended portfolio provides additional opportunities for further research into disease-modifying treatments which will ultimately benefit patients suffering from neurodegenerative conditions," said Dr Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec.