Evotec

Evotec AG

Type	Publicly listed stock corporation
Traded as	FWB: EVT
Industry	Biotechnology
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Hamburg, Germany
Key people	Werner Lanthaler (CEO) Enno Spillner (CFO) Dr Cord Dohrmann (CSO) Dr Mario Polywka (COO) Prof. Dr Wolfgang Plischke (Chairman of the Supervisory Board)
Number of employees	1,017 (06/2016)
Website	www.evotec.com

Evotec AG is a drug discovery and development partnership company providing drug discovery solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic sectors as well as to foundations and not-for-profit organisations. With a pool of highly experienced scientists, state-of-the-art technology platforms, first-class scientific operations and key therapeutic expertise in the areas of neuroscience, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology and infectious diseases, Evotec aims to develop best-in-class and first-in-class differentiated therapeutics – for collaborators or for its own internal pipeline development.

Evotec, founded in 1993, is a publicly listed stock corporation operating under German law. Since 2009, the Company has been listed in the Prime Standard at Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is a member of the TecDAX index.

Evotec is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. In addition to Evotec’s site in Hamburg (Germany), major operating sites exist in Abingdon and Manchester (UK), Toulouse (France), Göttingen and Munich (Germany) and South San Francisco, Branford and Princeton (USA). Further offices in Germany, the USA, the UK, France and Japan handle Evotec’s international business development activities.

The Evotec Group employed 1,017 people at the end of June 2016.

History

Evotec BioSystems GmbH was founded in Hamburg, Germany in 1993. Among the founders were Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen, Karsten Henco, Ulrich Aldag, Freimut Leidenberger, Heinrich Schulte, Rudolf Rigler and Charles Weissmann.

In the first years, the Company established collaborations with international Pharma companies like Novartis and SmithKlineBeecham to develop a high-throughput screening system (EVOscreen®.^[1] In 1999, Evotec Biosystems went public (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) and merged one year later with the British company Oxford Asymmetry International plc, which offered chemical services for biotech and Pharma companies and formed Evotec OAI (in 2005 the name changed to Evotec AG ^[2]).

In 2002, the Company was divided into two business parts, namely “Discovery and Development Services“ and “Tools and Technologies”.^[3] In this year, Evotec Technologies GmbH was founded. In 2006, Evotec Technologies was sold to Perkin Elmer to focus on its core business, the discovery and development of new pharmaceutical drugs.^[4] In 2008, Evotec acquired Renovis, an US biotech company and was listed on NASDAQ.^[5] One year later, Evotec underwent a change in management and strategy. During 2009, Evotec implemented its “Action Plan to Focus and Grow” ^[6] encompassing strict cost-cutting and restructuring measures. As a consequence, Evotec voluntarily delisted its American Depository Shares from the NASDAQ stock market to reduce associated costs and to concentrate its share trading on the TecDAX platform, which it re-entered in 2009.^[7] Additionally, Evotec took over 70% of Indian Research Support International Limited (RSIPL) ^[8] and a company providing organic synthesis and a zebrafish screening platform from Summit Corporation.^[9]

In 2010, Evotec acquired DeveloGen AG, a company focused on novel therapies for metabolic disorders, e.g. diabetes.^[10] In 2011, Evotec acquired two companies; Kinaxo Biotechnologies GmbH, a Munich-based, privately owned biotech company.^[11] Kinaxo’s capabilities comprised a combination of technologies improving drug development across the entire Pharma value chain. Furthermore, Evotec took over the compound management business from Biofocus, a subsidiary of the Galapagos group.^[12] In January 2013, Evotec acquired CCS Cell Culture Service GmbH, a Hamburg-based company which supported the cell culture needs of biotech and pharmaceutical companies.^[13] In summer 2013, Evotec announced the closure of its Indian operations.^[14]

In March 2014, Evotec acquired Bionamics GmbH, an asset management company that focuses on the translation of academic innovations into attractive assets for the biotech and Pharma industry.^[15] In May 2014, Evotec acquired Euprotec Ltd, a UK-based specialist contract research organisation leader in anti-infective drug discovery services.^[16]

Effective 1 April 2015, Evotec and Sanofi signed a definitive agreement for major multi-component strategic alliance and Evotec acquired Sanofi's scientific operations and related employees at Toulouse site.^[17]

Business model & Operating segments

The Company operates and manages its business activities under its two business segments EVT Execute and EVT Innovate.

EVT Execute provides stand-alone services on a typical fee-for-service basis or integrated drug discovery on partners’ targets through a variety of commercial structures including research fees, milestones and/or royalties.

EVT Innovate develops drug discovery programmes and assets, both internally or through academic collaborations. Evotec seeks to partner these into collaborations, in return for upfront payments and ongoing research payments combined with significant financial upside potential through milestones and royalties.

Therapeutics areas

Evotec has an expertise in many therapeutic areas, including neuroscience, oncology, immunology and inflammation, metabolic diseases and anti-infective diseases but also in many other indications in the fields of dermatology, haematology, ophthalmology, rare diseases, etc. This expertise has been developed through interactions and contributions in more than 250 collaborations over the past 23 years with life science partners as well as with the acquisition of therapeutic area specific companies like Euprotec,^[18] Develogen ^[19] and the Sanofi Toulouse site.^[20]

Pre-clinical services

Evotec offers services and alliances based on a broad range of integrated capabilities spanning the drug discovery process. Services comprise:

• Target identification and validation
• Hit identification
• Compound management
• Chemistry & medicinal chemistry
• Drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics
• Research informatics & In silico drug discovery
• Proteomics & metabolomics
• Cell, protein and antibody production
• In vitro pharmacology
• In vivo pharmacology

Management and Supervisory Board

Management

• Dr Werner Lanthaler (Chief Executive Officer)
• Enno Spillner (Chief Financial Officer)
• Dr Cord Dohrmann (Chief Scientific Officer)
• Dr Mario Polywka (Chief Operating Officer)

Supervisory Board

• Prof. Dr Wolfgang Plischke (Chairman)
• Bernd Hirsch (Vice Chairman)
• Dr Claus Braestrup
• Prof. Dr Paul Herrling
• Prof. Dr Iris Löw-Friedrich
• Dr Elaine Sullivan

References

External links

• Official website

TecDAX companies of Germany updated 18.03.2013
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