Evotec inks drug discovery collaboration with Janssen

German biotech Evotec (EVT: Xetra) today revealed it as entered a drug discovery collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceutica, a part of US healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).

Evotec’s innovative TargetAlloMod platforms will be evaluated to discover first-in-class novel mode of action therapeutic candidates. The agreement was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation.

Under the agreement, Evotec and Janssen will jointly conduct screens on the identified targets and collaborate with hit identification and lead optimization of the most promising chemical assets, leveraging Evotec’s end-to-end integrated drug discovery and development platform.

Evotec chief scientific officer Dr Cord Dohrmann commented: “We are very proud to enter into this collaboration to explore unique approaches to high potential cell surface drug targets with novel therapeutic modalities and to deliver and make innovative therapeutic options available to patients.”