Evotec Receives $23.8 M Grant To Join The Global Fight Against Tuberculosis
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports Evotec with a $ 23.8M grant to generate critical data for selecting best drug combinations for phase II clinical trials
- Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death due to an infectious disease worldwide
- Five-year partnership is focused on evaluating new treatment regimens that can substantially reduce treatment time and overcome resistance to current therapies
Hamburg, Germany, 10 June 2019: Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) today announced that the company has entered into a five-year partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discover new treatment regimens that better address tuberculosis ("TB"), a severe global health burden and one of the leading causes of death due to infectious diseases worldwide. The current standard treatment regimen for TB consists of a minimum of 6 months of treatment with 4 drugs administered under direct observation, but treatment is much longer when TB is drug resistant.
Evotec will receive a grant of approximately $ 23.8 m for a period of up to 5 years from the foundation. The main objective of the grant is to generate standardised, high-quality pre-clinical data to support novel regimen selection and development. The regimen should be safer, shorter in duration and more efficacious than the current standard of care. With this new grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Evotec has been selected once more as an essential partner for charities and foundations, such as CHDI, The Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Mark Foundation, in their research and development efforts to address complex, rare and difficult diseases.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are honoured to join with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fight tuberculosis, one of the world's most deadly infectious diseases. With our contributions of industrialised, high quality infrastructure and innovative methodology, we are confident that this combined international effort is the best possible starting point to bring huge benefits to the large number of patients who suffer from TB around the globe."
About Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis ("TB") is an airborne infectious disease most commonly caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis ("MTB") bacteria. It usually affects the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body as well. Tuberculosis is among the leading killers by infectious disease and is one of the ten most common causes of death worldwide. In 2017, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.6 million died from the disease. The disease disproportionally affects young children, with an estimated 1 million children falling ill with TB and 230,000 of them dying in 2017. TB is also a leading cause of death for people living with HIV, with 300,000 of such patients dying in (2017). Multidrug-resistant TB ("MDR-TB") remains a public health crisis and a health security threat. The World Health Organization ("WHO") estimates that in 2017 there were 558,000 new cases with resistance to rifampicin, the most effective first-line drug, 82% of which were MDR-TB. As a result of years of inadequate diagnosis and treatment, these types of drug-resistant TB are more difficult and costly to treat, highlighting the urgent need for new, better, faster-acting treatments.
ABOUT THE BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. In the United States, it seeks to ensure that all people-especially those with the fewest resources-have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann and Co-chair William H. Gates Sr., under the direction of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation media contact
Kitty.Harding@gatesfoundation.
V: +1.206.726.7179
M: +1 203.641.0003
ABOUT EVOTEC SE
Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide and our more than 2,600 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. We cover all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and fibrosis. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter@Evotec.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Contact Evotec SE:
Gabriele Hansen, VP Corporate Communications, Marketing & Investor Relations, Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-255, gabriele.hansen@evotec.com