Evotec signs drug discovery collaboration

In a second deal announced this week, German biotech firm Evotec (EVT: Xetra) says it has entered into an integrated drug discovery collaboration on an ion channel target with Japan’s Asahi Kasei Pharma, a wholly owned subsidiary of Asahi Kasei Corp.

Under the terms of the agreement, financial terms of which were not disclosed, Evotec will apply its integrated drug discovery platform including medicinal chemistry, computational chemistry and in vitro pharmacology to optimize hit compounds identified and selected from the Evotec compound library collection through a recent successful high-throughput screening campaign executed at Evotec.

Dr Mario Polywka, chief operating officer of Evotec, stated: "We are delighted to expand our collaboration with Asahi Kasei Pharma into a fully integrated drug discovery project. Evotec operates one of the most comprehensive ion channel platforms in the industry and this collaboration represents further validation of the strength of this platform and the library screened. We look forward to working closely with our colleagues at Asahi Kasei Pharma."