Evotec and Sanofi sign definitive agreement for major multicomponent strategic alliance
Companies agree long-term discovery service collaboration, with a focus on oncology, and establish a French academic bridge
Evotec has signed a definitive agreement for a major multicomponent strategic alliance during the next five years with Sanofi. The transaction is expected to close on 31 March 2015.
The collaboration will result in a minimum guaranteed commitment from Sanofi to Evotec of €250m, including more than €40m as an upfront cash payment. The five-year agreement includes initiatives with both of Evotec’s two business segments (EVT Execute and EVT Innovate).
Following its strategic growth plans, Evotec will expand its industry leading capabilities in drug discovery by integrating a 20,000m2 state-of-the-art facility and more than 200 highly qualified and experienced employees in Toulouse, France. Evotec will integrate the Toulouse capacities into its global drug discovery infrastructure and offering.
The expanded capabilities will serve to support collaborative research in drug discovery from screening to the identification of preclinical candidates with Evotec’s pharma, biotech, venture capital and academic partners.
Evotec will provide a broad range of long-term drug discovery services to Sanofi. In a first-in-class, groundbreaking ‘open innovation initiative,’ both companies will combine their libraries and offer them for screening to Evotec’s business partners. This creates one of the largest and most valuable sources of starting points for drug discovery with approximately 1.7 million compounds available to screen.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: ‘We are very excited to welcome our new colleagues to Evotec. We would also like to welcome Sanofi as a new strategic customer and key alliance partner. This transaction supports our long-term strategic growth plans for our EVT Execute and EVT Innovate segments.’
'We highly value this collaboration, which will reinforce Toulouse Biopark as a major biomedical research platform in Europe and create a field of opportunities for our employees, while contributing to the vitality of the local ecosystem,’ added Dr Elias Zerhouni, President Global R&D for Sanofi.