Bristol Myers Squibb has exercised its option to extend its partnership with Evotec SE in the field of targeted protein degradation, triggering an undisclosed payment to Evotec. The companies initiated this strategic drug discovery and development partnership in 2018 with the goal to identify first-in-class drug candidates focusing on solid tumors.
 
The partnership leverages Evotec’s PanOmics platform, which combines enhanced throughput proteomics, high throughput transcriptomics and cell imaging with the integrated data analysis platform PanHunter. Together with Evotec’s deep insights into the disease biology of oncology, the approach has generated a pipeline of novel first-in-class targeted protein degradation projects, two of which have transitioned successfully into lead optimization after completing respective validation processes on Evotec’s platforms.
 
Dr. Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, said: “Targeted protein degradation is an emerging new therapeutic modality with enormous potential to reach not only proven drug targets through a novel mechanism of action, but also traditionally undruggable targets and thus discover and develop first-in-class, disease-modifying therapeutics. The success of our collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb to date has led to Bristol Myers Squibb’s decision to expand and extend this collaboration. We are honoured and extremely proud to collaborate with the industry-leading company in the field of protein homeostasis and are very much looking forward to continue our efforts at an accelerated pace.”