Evotec to collaborate with Merck on neurological disease drug discovery program

Evotec AG (Frankfurt:EVT) (TecDAX) today announced that it has signed within the "NEU²-Consortium" framework and partially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung - BMBF), an agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to develop pre-clinical candidates for an undisclosed neurological disease. Evotec will provide drug discovery expertise covering in vitro biology, medicinal chemistry and in vitro and in vivo pharmacology.

As part of the collaboration, Evotec will apply their integrated drug discovery expertise and technologies to identify interesting small molecules for the selected target. The molecules will be further optimised and progressed through lead optimization to a pre-clinical candidate.

Dr Mario Polywka, COO of Evotec commented: "We are proud to be part of the NEU² consortium and we are extremely pleased that Merck KGaA selected Evotec to collaborate on this interesting Drug Discovery Program which is a further recognition of our CNS disease expertise."