In addition to new drug discovery collaboration, the companies extend an existing library synthesis contract.
Solvay Pharmaceuticals signed a new deal with Evotec to enhance its fragment-based drug discovery program as well as extended an earlier partnership.
Under the first agreement, Solvay will access Evotec’s fragment-based screening platform and library to identify hits against a particular target. Evotec will produce 3-D co-crystals of the fragment hits bound to the protein and then optimize the fragments. Solvay will pay an access fee for accessing the screening technology.
The second transaction extends an existing library synthesis contract for a further 12 months from January 1, 2007. Evotec has been synthesizing and supplying chemical libraries to Solvay for screening against targets in its drug discovery programs since January 2001.
Solvay has extended the original contract three times in six years. “In 2000, after extensive due diligence, Solvay chose Evotec as its key partner to complement Solvay’s in-house activities in the field of library synthesis,” comments Chris Kruse, Ph.D., discovery program manager, Solvay Pharmaceuticals. “The design of multistep libraries is the result of a collaborative partnership through which the specific strengths of the two companies are leveraged to achieve optimal chances of success.”
