The new company, Topas Therapeutics GmbH (Topas), stems from Bionamics GmbH’s neuro portfolio, which was acquired by Evotec in March 2014.
According to Evotec, the new company plans to target a unique pipeline of clinical-stage development projects to treat autoimmune diseases.
"We are very excited by Topas' unique product-platform technology, which has significant breakthrough potential,” said Dr Werner Lanthaler, Evotec CEO and interim Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Topas.
“The company formation of Topas is the first example of an acceleration of our business model representing an optimal risk-reward profile up to clinical proof-of-concept stage for our shareholders in selected fields of high strategic medical relevance."
Topas raised $15.75m in a Series A funding, supported by Epidarex Capital, EMBL Ventures, Gimv and Evotec AG.
Dr Timm Jessen, Topas CEO, commented, "We are delighted to engage with such a strong and experienced consortium of investors who share with us the excellence and commercial potential of this unique mode to induce antigen-specific tolerance in autoimmune diseases and beyond."
Initial clinical trials are expected to take place in 2017.
"Topas Therapeutics' unique approach to tolerance has the potential to lead to transformative medicines in diseases of high unmet medical need,” added Peter Finan PhD, Partner at Epidarex Capital.
“We are delighted to have led the financing with such strong co-investors and we look forward to working closely with the Topas team to realize this potential."
Evotec also announced today that the company’s revenues increased 43% in 2015, to $143.34m (€127.7m) from $100.46m (€89.5m) the previous year.
According to the company, the increase resulted from “a growth in the core EVT Execute business with new partners, a strong contribution from the anti-infective business unit, four new strategic partnerships out of the Cure X/Target X initiatives and favorable foreign exchange rate effects.”
The company expects total Group revenue to increase by more than 15% in 2016, an assumption based on the current order book, expected new contracts, and contract extensions.