Evotec to acquire Euprotec to establish an anti-infectives platform

Germany’s Evotec (EVT: Xetra) says it has acquired all the shares in Euprotec Ltd, a UK-based specialist contract research organization, and provider of anti-infective drug discovery services.

£1.9 million upfront plus £1.25 million deferred payment

The purchase price consists of a cash consideration of £1.9 million ($3.2 million) and a deferred payment component of £1.25 million in cash. The deferred payment will be due following through two years after the acquisition and depends upon the business performance and achieving certain revenue targets. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2014.

The acquisition of Euprotec confirms Evotec's position as a fully integrated drug discovery and early development partner for pharma and biotechnology companies, the German company stated. Integration of Euprotec's unique capabilities augments and complements Evotec's high-end drug discovery platform with anti-infective screening, early PKPD (pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic) profiling, an extensive range of disease and efficacy models for characterization of anti-bacterials, anti-fungals and anti-virals, StrainBank, a unique collection of clinical isolates, and adds core disease biology know-how in infection. These skills further enhance Evotec's ability to deliver high-quality innovative solutions to its partners on a global scale.

“Through the acquisition of Euprotec's capabilities and its disease biology know-how in infection, Evotec expands its technological portfolio to offer a complete infrastructure and discovery solutions in the field of infectious diseases,” said Werner Lanthaler, chief executive of Evotec, adding: “Importantly, we acquire highly innovative approaches, within our core competence along the discovery value chain, to open new therapeutic routes in the major market of infectious diseases. There is a pressing need for new agents to treat key infections due to emerging resistance to current therapies. Currently, Evotec has two innovative programs, TargetPicV and TargetPGB, to develop drugs to treat infectious diseases and with this acquisition we can expand this portfolio.”

Despite cash requirements for the transaction in 2014, Evotec confirms all prior financial objectives. For the current fiscal year, the company expects high single-digit percentage growth in revenue excluding milestones, upfronts and licences, to spend approximately 10 million euros ($13.6 million) to 14 million euros in R&D and to end the year 2014 with a liquidity of more than 90 million euros.