Evotec OAI And SiREEN Enter Into A Drug Discovery And Development Agreement To Identify New Small Molecule Therapeutics

Evotec OAI AG, Hamburg, Germany (Neuer Markt: EVT), a supplier of integrated high value added drug discovery services, and SiREEN AG, a drug discovery and development company, announced today the signing of a drug discovery and development agreement to identify and synthesise novel small molecule therapeutics.

In this collaboration Evotec OAI will perform assay development, screening and chemical synthesis for up to four targets over the next three years. Initially, SiREEN will select targets from which Evotec OAI will develop biological assays and perform screening using their high-quality lead discovery library to identify novel scaffolds. Additionally, SiREEN will access Evotec OAI's leading chemical synthesis platform to support the development of protein family specific compound libraries. Equally, SiREEN's technologies SiREENize and SiREENscreen can be used in Evotec OAI's processes with the aim to define highly selective lead compounds. The agreement combines both companies' core technologies and allows either party to access these for use in their drug discovery and service offerings respectively.

For the initial programme SiREEN will pay to Evotec OAI fees for services. In addition, Evotec OAI will receive an equity stake in SiREEN. Under the terms of the agreement both companies will receive milestone and royalty payments for the services provided. The agreement also includes an option to extend the collaboration beyond discovery to drug development programs. Additionally, over the next three years SiREEN will grant Evotec OAI access to proprietary technologies to augment Evotec OAI's comprehensive drug discovery platform.

"SiREEN's innovative drug discovery technology will add further value to our comprehensive Target-to-IND process," said Dr. Timm-H. Jessen, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec OAI. "We are delighted that both companies will collaborate to enhance the search for novel therapeutics."

"We strongly believe that the combination of Evotec OAI's validated drug discovery platform and SiREEN's novel technologies SiREENize and SiREENscreen will boost the efficiency of the drug discovery and development process", said Dr. Michael Schäffer, SiREENs Chief Executive Officer. "There is a perfect fit between SiREEN and Evotec OAI and we are looking forward to strengthen our collaboration in the future."