Evotec and CHDI sign $37M R&D accord ext

Germany's Evotec AG, a small-molecule drug developer, and the Cure Huntington's Disease Initiative Foundation, a non-profit organization using biotechnology to identify therapies for the disease, have extended the duration of their R&D collaboration until 2010. The expansion will see Evotec receive around $37.0 million in additional research funding.

The deal, which covers all of Evotec's drug discovery program, ranging from medicinal chemistry, biology and compound sourcing, is primarily focused on the firm's high-throughput candidate screening activities. Under the terms of the agreement, which was established in March 2006 (Marketletters passim), the firm is responsible for characterizing and optimizing active compounds, generating molecules suitable for examination in clinical trials.

Robert Pacifici, chief scientific advisor to the foundation, said that the partnership was important, adding that "based on 18 months of working together successfully with Evotec...we remain impressed by [the firm's] breadth of drug discovery expertise coupled with their knowledge of CNS diseases that ideally complement our efforts in the search for novel treatment that may slow or prevent Huntington's disease."