Evotec AG has entered a strategic collaboration with Carna Biosciences. Carna will access Evotec’s INDiGO platform to accelerate the development of its program CB-1763, which is being developed for the treatment of blood cancer, through to the submission of an Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“We are excited to initiate IND-enabling studies for our next-generation non-covalent BTK inhibitor, CB-1763, in collaboration with Evotec”, said Dr Masaaki Sawa, chief scientific officer at Carna Biosciences. “We’ve been working with Evotec from last year and found they are a really reliable partner. We believe Evotec’s INDiGO programme and their team will help us to accelerate the development of our CB-1763 and we are confident that we will achieve our goal to reach IND-filing in the first half of 2019.”

Dr Mario Polywka, chief operating officer of Evotec, said, “This development of Carna’s key project directly reflects the success of our comprehensive and industry-unique INDiGO service. We are delighted to support Carna’s CB-1763 inhibitor programme, an innovative approach to blood cancer, through to the clinic. Additionally, working with Carna also highlights our increasing presence in the Japanese market.”

Carna has another reversible BTK inhibitor in pre-clinical development, AS-871, a novel non-covalent BTK inhibitor targeting autoimmune diseases. AS-871 is also undergoing IND-enabling studies in collaboration with Evotec.

The INDiGO platform accelerates early drug candidates into the clinic by reducing time from nomination to regulatory submission in 52 weeks by tightly integrating traditional drug silos into a single project managed under one roof.