Evotec in deal with Hypha Discovery to enhance drug discovery
platform
2 April 2010
Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX) has signed
an agreement with Hypha Discovery Ltd that gives its screening clients
access to Hypha’s MycoDiverse natural product collection for use as part
of its hit-and-lead services to identify medicinal compounds.
Furthermore, following screening, Evotec could leverage its
capabilities and expertise in natural product chemistry and
medicinal chemistry to optimise promising hit compounds.
The MycoDiverse collection, which is unexploited in most
therapeutic areas, contains samples of high chemical novelty. This,
allied with Evotec’s recognised expertise and proprietary
technologies in assay development, screening and medicinal
chemistry, creates a comprehensive platform for lead generation via
natural product screening.
Dr Liam Evans, Chief Executive Officer of Hypha Discovery stated:
“Evotec is a world-leading provider of high throughput screening
services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and as such
this strategic partnership provides new and exciting opportunities
to find novel drug leads resulting from our breakthrough fungal
fermentation technology.”
Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President, Business Development of
Evotec commented: “We are continually looking at ways to enhance
Evotec’s offering to its customers. We see access to Hypha’s high
quality natural product collection as a logical step towards
offering our customers further choices for lead identification. We
feel that our ability to offer the screening of natural products is
complementary to also providing access to our high quality, small
molecule library.”