Hamburg, Germany | Oxford, UK | Basel, Switzerland - Roche and Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX 30; Evotec) today announced that they have formed an alliance to jointly discover and develop compounds against a target for CNS diseases and other indications.
 
Leveraging the expertise developed by Evotec on this target, and as part of their CNS drug discovery focus, Evotec and Roche will collaborate to identify inhibitors involved in the potential treatment of a range of diseases. Both companies believe that this target is of high priority and that partnering their respective drug discovery efforts and expertise will bring about the successful and timely discovery of new drugs.
 
Dr John Kemp, Executive Vice President Research & Development at Evotec, said: "This collaboration capitalises on Evotec's and Roche's complementary drug discovery capabilities and underlines the value of our drug discovery platform and CNS expertise. We are delighted to join forces with Roche, one of the world's premier pharmaceutical companies, to discover novel drug candidates that will enrich our companies' pipelines. We have been working with Roche for many years in an atmosphere of mutual respect - in service agreements and in-licensing of CNS drugs - and are looking forward to now partnering one of our CNS discovery projects into this joint effort."
 
"This agreement builds on the strategic alliance that Roche and Evotec have established over the last five years", said Dr Peter Hug, Global Head of Pharma Partnering at Roche. "Through the multiple dimensions of the Roche-Evotec relationship we are endeavoring to develop compounds that will make a difference in patients lives." 
 
Roche and Evotec will jointly progress projects up to clinical development, at which stage Roche will have exclusive rights to the development of the drug candidates. In return, Evotec will be eligible to receive milestone payments that could exceed 100 million Euros in total, plus royalties on the sale of any products. If Roche does not exercise these opt-in rights, Evotec will have the right to opt-in, making adjusted payments to Roche.
 
 Contact:                           
Evotec AG
Anne Hennecke
Director, Investor Relations
& Corporate Communications
Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-286
anne.hennecke@evotec.com
 
Roche-Europe
Ian Metcalfe
Pharma Partnering
Phone: +41.(0)61.687 0272
ian.metcalfe@roche.com