HAMBURG, Germany, April 27, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evotec AG (Frankfurt:EVT) (TecDAX) today announced that it will receive funding of up to EUR 1.5 million from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to advance its H3 receptor antagonist programme into the clinic.
Using its CNS expertise coupled with its world leading discovery platform Evotec has successfully identified and optimised H3 receptor antagonists through to preclinical development. This grant will now provide external funding for Evotec to advance the programme through Phase I clinical studies.
The histamine H3 receptor is a drug target of high interest because of evidence that blocking this receptor in the brain can improve cognition, alertness and attention. H3 receptor antagonists therefore have the potential to become an important new class of therapy in a number of CNS indications, including excessive fatigue associated with conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
Dr. Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec commented: "We are happy that the Neu² consortium has chosen to support our H3 receptor antagonist programme for further development within the BioPharma initiative. By driving these novel drug candidates from identification through to the first clinical steps, we can optimally capture the commercial value of this programme."
About Neu2 Consortium
The Neu2 consortium, including Evotec, MerckSerono, the European ScreeningPort GmbH, Bionamics GmbH, and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf amongst others were successful against stiff competition in the BioPharma initiative, a nationwide strategic competition of the BMBF with the objective to support innovative drug discovery programmes in the German Pharma and Biotech industry. Evotec plays an important role in the Neu2 consortium which focuses on developing therapeutics aimed at multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.
About Evotec AG
Evotec is a leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs with operational sites in Europe and Asia. The Company has built substantial drug discovery expertise and an industrialised platform that can drive new innovative small molecule compounds into the clinic. In addition, Evotec has built a deep internal knowledge base in the treatment of diseases related to neuroscience, pain, oncology and inflammation. Leveraging these skills and expertise the Company intends to develop best-in-class differentiated therapeutics and deliver superior science-driven discovery alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Evotec has long-term discovery alliances with partners including Boehringer Ingelheim, CHDI, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical and Roche. Evotec has product candidates in clinical development and a series of preclinical compounds and development partnerships, including for example a strategic alliance with Roche for the EVT 100 compound family, subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonists for use in treatment-resistant depression. For additional information please go to http://www.evotec.com/">www.evotec.com.
Forward-looking statements
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties.Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our financial outlook for 2010 and beyond; our expectation that our current cash, cash equivalents, investments, and operating revenues will be sufficient to fund our planned activities beyond 2012, and our belief that we are on course to profitability and sustainability by 2012; our expectations regarding the growth of the pharmaceutical outsourcing drug discovery market, the opportunities such growth will provide us, and our ability to take advantage of such market developments and become a leader in this industry in the coming years; our expectations regarding the impacts, and anticipated timing of such impacts, of the "Evotec 2012 – Action Plan to Focus and Grow"; our expectation that our reentry into the German technology TecDAX in 2009 will increase liquidity for our shareholders and that our voluntary delisting from NASDAQ and anticipated de-registration with the SEC will streamline our activities and focus the liquidity of Evotec's stock on one trading platform; our expectations regarding the impact that the recent global financial crisis will have on our company; our expectations and assumptions concerning regulatory, clinical, and business strategies, the progress of our clinical development programmes and timing of the results of our clinical trials, strategic collaborations, and management's plans, objectives and strategies. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things: risks that we may be unable to achieve the anticipated benefits of our revised business focus, restructuring, and cost containment measures or recognise the results of such measures within the expected timeframes; risks that we will not achieve the anticipated benefits of our collaborations, partnerships and acquisitions in the timeframes expected, or at all; the risk that we will not achieve the anticipated benefits of our voluntarily delisting from NASDAQ and anticipated de-registration from the SEC; risks that product candidates may fail in the clinic or may not be successfully marketed or manufactured; risks relating to our ability to advance the development of product candidates currently in the pipeline or in clinical trials; our inability to further identify, develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the risk that competing products may be more successful; our inability to interest potential partners in our technologies and products; our inability to achieve commercial success for our products and technologies; our inability to protect our intellectual property and the cost of enforcing or defending our intellectual property rights; our failure to comply with regulations relating to our products and product candidates, including FDA requirements; the risk that the FDA may interpret the results of our studies differently than we have; the risk that clinical trials may not result in marketable products; the risk that we may be unable to successfully secure regulatory approval of and market our drug candidates; risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the U.S. and internationally; general worldwide economic conditions and related uncertainties; future legislative, regulatory, or tax changes as well as other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on our international operations.
The list of risks above is not exhaustive. Our Annual Report on Form 20-F most recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other filings and items furnished with the Securities and Exchange Commission, contain additional factors that could impact our businesses and financial performance. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.