Building on their 5-year, 2012 endometriosis research deal, and clearly happy with what it has seen, German pharma Bayer has notched another pact with Evotec, this time in kidney disease.
The deal, which could be worth more than €300 million to Evotec in total, will see them sign another 5-year pact focused on developing a number of candidates targeting kidney diseases, including chronic kidney disease in diabetes patients.
In a statement, the two said: “Both companies will contribute novel drug targets and a comprehensive set of high-quality technology platforms to jointly develop innovative treatment options for these severe conditions. The partners will share responsibilities during preclinical development of potential clinical candidates.”
Under the deal, Bayer will receive exclusive access to a number of candidates in Evotec’s store, as well as to its CureNephron target pipeline. The German pharma, which has also signed several CRISPR deals over the past year, including the creation of a spinout with biotech CRISPR Therapeutics, will then take on all clinical development and sales of those candidates.
On its side, Evotec gets at least €14 million over the 5 years, which includes research payments and an undisclosed license fee.
The company is also in line to get preclinical, clinical and sales milestones of more than €300 million, and a further boost from tiered royalties up to low double-digit percentage of net sales.
Evotec has been on an R&D roll in the past year, teaming up with Pfizer ($PFE) last September in fibrosis and more recently an R&D tie-up with Antibiotic Research UK. At the start of the year it, like its new partner, announced a spinoff, its first, that is focused on developing treatments for multiple sclerosis.