Evotec and Novo Nordisk combine to develop diabetes and other therapies

Recently I shared with you news of Evotec purchasing Sanoif’s anti-infectives unit. Now Evotec is entering into a business deal with Novo Nordisk, which will find the two companies combining their resources. Novo Nordisk will be able to utilise Evotec’s INDiGO drug discovery platform for the pre-clinical testing stages. INDiGO speeds up early drug candidates into the clinic by integrating traditional drug silos into one project managed in one location. This reduces time from nomination to regulatory submission in 52 weeks, sometimes less. Whilst time and costs are reduced, quality is not compromised. The plan is to develop treatments for a range of diseases, namely cardiovascular disease, diabetes (specifically to discover and develop small molecule therapies), diabetic kidney disease, obesity, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

SVP, Global Drug Discovery, Novo Nordisk, Dr Marcus Schindler, said: “Evotec is a highly esteemed company in the field of small molecules and we are very excited about the collaboration. Novo Nordisk is confident that this will open up new possibilities in small molecule drug discovery and development targeting diabetes and obesity with the potential to make a difference for people living with these serious diseases.”