Evotec and Bristol Myers Squibb Progress Strategic Partnership

Evotec announced on March 16, 2023 that there has been progress within its strategic partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) relating to building a molecular glue-based pipeline. Performance-based and program-based achievements will total $75 million to Evotec.

The companies entered their strategic protein degradation partnership in 2018 and expanded it in May 2022. Evotec has scaled up its activities to develop compounds from Bristol Myers Squibb’s library of cereblon E3 ligase modulators since the expansion. The partnership’s goal is to develop high-value targets in the field of oncology and more by building a pipeline of novel molecular glue degraders. According to a company press release, molecular glue degraders are compounds that induce interactions between an E3 ubiquitin ligase and a molecular target, which results in ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of the protein. The molecular glue itself is not degraded in the process, meaning it can trigger the degradation process several times over, which can lead to longer-lasting therapeutic effects.

“The recent extension and expansion of our partnership with BMS continues to deliver high value programs,” said Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec, in a company press release. “Our Omics-based, highly systematic, and industrialized approach to identify very promising molecular glues continually exceeds all expectations and will translate into an extraordinary pipeline of first-in-class product opportunities.”