Evotec and Cubist to collaborate on fragment-based drug discovery

Evotec, a German company involved in the discovery and development of small molecule drugs, has signed a research agreement with Cubist Pharmaceuticals, an acute care biopharmaceutical company based in Lexington, Massachusetts, US.

Cubist will use Evotec's proprietary fragment screening technology, EVOlution, to complement discovery research efforts in two of its antibacterials programmes. No financial details were disclosed.

EVOlution combines biochemical, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technologies for the screening of low molecular weight compounds and fragments. By combining orthogonal screening technologies, Evotec says its fragment screening platform is capable of screening a more diverse set of biological targets than other approaches, as well offering high-throughout. This allows it to identify active fragments for numerous classes of biological targets in a short space of time.

Evotec will also use its expertise in structural biology and protein crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structure of the fragments bound to the targets of interest. The company will access the state-of-the-art synchrotron technology of Diamond Light Source, its partner for protein crystallography.

Evotec will then supply results to Cubist to enable structure-driven identification of drug candidates for its antibacterial targets.