Herbert Stadler’s Ellersbrook has invested in Evotec’s (FRA:EVT) in-house nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug discovery program. The deal sees Ellersbrook and Evotec agree to jointly bankroll the advance of NASH programs, with a view to spinning them off into an independent startup or partnering them with a biopharma company down the line.
Hamburg, Germany-based Evotec is contributing its NASH program to the alliance and some of the €5 million ($5.5 million) the partners have collectively committed to see the project through its first three years. If the project successful reaches a value inflection point, the partners will weigh up their options before deciding whether to use the programs as the basis for an independently financed spinoff or partner up with a biopharma company.
The strategy is a twist on the business model pursued by Evotec’s EVT Innovate operation, which lists assets partnered with AstraZeneca ($AZN), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), Roche ($RHHBY) and Sanofi ($SNY) in its pipeline of projects. These deals typically see Evotec partner on early-stage projects in return for upfront payments, milestones and royalties, an arrangement it views as mitigating the risks associated with developing a pipeline.
Ellersbrook, the other partner in the latest deal, is owned by Stadler, a prolific entrepreneur who is well known to Evogen. In 1997, Stadler cofounded DeveloGen, a small-molecule drug development shop that landed a diabetes alliance with Boehringer Ingelheim before being acquired by Evotec in 2010. Stadler left DeveloGen before that deal. After leaving, he took up the CEO post at Neuronova. Under his leadership, Neuronova allied with Evotec. Stadler also cofounded Stage Cell Therapeutics, which Juno Therapeutics ($JUNO) bought last year in a deal worth up to €187.5 million.
If the NASH project is to echo that success, it will have to demonstrate that it can outperform more advanced rivals in the race to bring treatments for the liver disease to market. Evotec is lagging well behind NASH pacesetters Intercept Pharmaceuticals ($ICPT) and Genfit (EPA:GNFT), and it has given a sizable head start to the chasing pack, which includes Gilead ($GILD) and Shire ($SHPG).
That Evotec, which is known for its drug discovery skills, thinks the opportunity is worth pursuing suggests it has a novel take on NASH, but details have yet to emerge. For now, the company has only said it has highly innovative targets it thinks can enable it to address different stages of NASH. A spokesperson for Evotec declined to provide additional details to FierceBiotech.
- read the release
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