HitGen has added biotech-CRO hybrid Evotec to its growing list of biopharma partners.
The Chinese life science company is teaming up with Germany-based Evotec for a drug discovery research collaboration.
Details are pretty thin (as they are for most deals): The pact seeks to “identify small molecule leads against targets of interest to Evotec in the field of anti-infectives.”
Through the collab, financial details of which have not been released, HitGen will apply its platform technology that screens DNA-encoded libraries to discover compounds that “bind to certain targets,” but it’s not getting any more specific.
Anything found will then be exclusively licensed to Evotec, which will grab an undisclosed upfront payment and license fee from the German company.
Jin Li, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of HitGen, said: “We are delighted to enter this collaboration with Evotec SE, a leading drug discovery alliance and development partnership company with tremendous success in collaborative R&D. We look forward to working closely with Evotec SE research teams to deliver novel small molecules to their programs.”
HitGen has similar tie-ups with a growing group of companies including Pfizer, Merck, Biogen, Sun Pharma and Boehringer.
HitGen’s drug discovery capabilities center around a DNA-encoded library (DEL). During the synthesis process, HitGen adds building blocks to novel chemical structures through a technique called “split and pool,” then encodes each compound with a known sequence of DNA.
The compounds are screened simultaneously against a target, and only those with strong affinity to the protein will be advanced into the next phase, where the structures of selected chemicals will be identified via DNA sequencing.
It offers different partnering models and is able to design and synthesize DELs on specific requests, screen its DELs against targets provided by a partner and work with partners to co-develop lead candidates or out-license projects.
“HitGen DEL screening platform offers tremendous potential to identify a small molecule binder to Evotec’s target of interest,” said Kara Carter, executive vice president of infectious disease at Evotec.
Two summers back, Evotec wrapped up a deal for Sanofi’s infectious disease unit, which is now the focus of its anti-infective work. The agreement saw Sanofi transfer 100 employees, more than 10 drug candidates and €60 million ($70 million) upfront to the German service provider.