Daiichi Sankyo picks Evotec for drug development deal

Evotec, a pharmaceutical company part-based in the UK directed at the discovery and development of innovative small molecule drugs, has announced the signing of a research agreement with Daiichi Pharmaceutical.

The deal with the Japanese company involves compound profiling and medicinal chemistry, with employees from Evotec working on two Daiichi programmes regarding the identification of lead structures, aiming towards clinical trials.

Dr Mark Ashton, executive vice president business development services at Evotec, said: “We are very pleased that that Daiichi has selected Evotec as their partner of choice to support them in the advancement of this new class of compounds.”

He added that the collaboration confirmed the company’s expertise in the chemistry and biology of small molecule discovery and its dedication to supporting drug companies in Japan.

Evotec recently announced the start of a Phase II clinical trial of its EVT 201 treatment for insomnia after the company reported “extremely encouraging” earlier trials of the compound.