Evotec, Variant Bio enter strategic partnership

Evotec and Variant Bio announced a collaboration agreement to identify a best-in-class treatment for diseases caused by fibrosis. The strategic partnership leverages Variant Bio’s cutting-edge genomic discovery capabilities and VB-Inference platform as well as Evotec’s extensive expertise in antifibrotic drug discovery. Evotec will identify best-in-class small molecules targeting a key fibrotic pathway with strong genetic support identified by Variant Bio and progress the program towards the selection of a clinical development candidate(s) using Evotec’s integrated end-to-end R&D platform. Additionally, the collaboration includes an opportunity to evaluate unrelated nephrology targets based on human multi-omics data with Evotec’s molecular patient database. Under the terms of the risk-sharing partnership, Evotec will receive undisclosed research funding and may receive pre-clinical and clinical milestones and/or royalties dependent on the success of the program. This strategic framework allows Variant Bio to offset the early costs of drug development in exchange for a portion of the future upside.