Under the terms of the initial agreement, Evotec was awarded a payment and equity grant in addition to research payments, though a spokesman for the company said he could not elaborate on the payments. In the next phase of this agreement, Evotec is eligible for over $13m in research payments and milestones.
Initiated in January 2014, the collaboration has Evotec providing a full range of research activities and expertise to Padlock including in vitro biology, high-throughput screening, structural biology, medicinal and computational chemistry and DMPK (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics). Over the next two years, Evotec and Padlock will progress multiple programmes through hit-to-lead and lead optimisation with the goal of delivering multiple development candidates.
Mario Polywka, COO of Evotec, said: "We are excited to continue collaborating with Padlock. This collaboration highlights how Evotec's integrated drug discovery platform provides a unique complement to Padlock's innovative approach to this target class and associated therapeutic area.”
Padlock is developing medicines targeting protein-arginine deiminases (PADs), enzymes with an important role in the generation of autoantigens, inflammation and immune complex formation in autoimmune diseases. The company recently raised $23m in a Series A financing led by Atlas Venture.
Michael Gilman, CEO of Padlock Therapeutics, added: "Evotec has been an innovative and supportive partner during Padlock's successful seed phase. We look forward to continuing our work with Evotec scientists toward PAD-targeted medicines as fundamentally new therapies for patients with autoimmune disease."
The success of this partnership comes on the heels of earlier successes by the German CRO to deliver in its partnerships with Bayer and Janssen. Those collaborations resulted in a total of almost €8m ($9.8m) to be awarded in milestones to Evotec.
The revenues were reached in Evotec’s multi-target collaboration with Bayer in endometriosis and thanks to its partnership with Janssen for the EVT100 series for the treatment of CNS diseases.
The revenues come as Evotec is in negotiations over a $310m (€250m) strategic partnership with Sanofi that will look to tackle major initiatives over five years in oncology and related to Evotec’s compound library.
Evotec also previously formed a research partnership with Harvard to study ALS.