AstraZeneca and Evotec have launched a research collaboration focused on developing new drugs for kidney disease, the second partnership involving entities of the pharma giant and the German drug discovery alliance and development partnership company. The value of the collaboration was not disclosed.
Evotec will license a series of molecules identified by its own drug-discovery platform to AstraZeneca as part of a systematic kidney disease initiative. The molecules are possible candidates for addressing a key mechanism in chronic kidney disease. AstraZeneca will provide pharmaceutical development expertise and marketing capabilities for the compounds, as well as industrial scope and scale for manufacturing.
Evotec will receive from AstraZeneca an undisclosed up-front payment, research funding for work to be conducted with AstraZeneca, and payments tied to undisclosed preclinical, clinical, and regulatory milestones. Evotec is also eligible for additional future milestone and royalty payments related to commercialization of products developed through the collaboration.
“Our goal is to identify and develop effective therapies to halt or slow down the decline of renal function for patients suffering from kidney diseases,” Marcus Schindler, Ph.D., vp and head of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases iMed iScience with AstraZeneca, said in a statement. “This new collaboration complements our research efforts in the renal disease space.”
