Benzinga | Jan 18, 2022 04:30AM EST

Evotec and Lilly Entered into Drug Discovery Collaboration in Metabolic Diseases; Evotec to Receive Undisclosed Upfront Payment Plus Up to $1B in Milestone Payments and Royalties

Evotec SE ((Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, OTC:EVOTF, NASDAQ:EVO) announced today that the Company has entered into a drug discovery collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company ("Lilly") in the field of metabolic diseases with a focus on kidney diseases and diabetes.

The collaboration leverages Evotec's extensive experience and track record of delivering in the field of metabolic diseases, as well as its unique and extensive kidney disease patient database, to identify and validate promising novel targets for therapeutic intervention. Evotec will be responsible for the discovery of potential drug candidates for the treatment of diabetes and chronic kidney diseases from targets identified by Lilly or by Evotec. Lilly reserves the right to select up to five programmes developed within this partnership and to continue with any subsequent development, clinical validation and commercialisation.

The collaboration initially runs for a term of three years. In addition to an undisclosed upfront payment, Evotec will be eligible to receive success-based discovery development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to US$ 180 m per programme, as well as tiered royalties on net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration, for a potential overall value up to US$ 1 bn.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are excited to enter into this research partnership with Lilly. Over a period of several years, Evotec has systematically built a proprietary patient database by conducting multi-omics analyses of biospecimens from patient biobanks covering metabolic and kidney diseases. Evotec's patient-derived molecular data in combination with our omics-supported multimodality drug discovery platform delivers highest quality drug candidates for our partners. We are proud to collaborate with Lilly in diabetes and kidney diseases as they are one of the leading companies in these areas."