HAMBURG, Germany, Oct. 28, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evotec AG (Frankfurt:EVT - News) (TecDAX) today announced that it has entered into a license and collaboration agreement with Zhejiang Jingxin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (“Jingxin Pharma”) for EVT 201, a novel potential treatment for insomnia. The agreement grants Jingxin Pharma exclusive rights to develop and market the drug candidate in China. In return, Evotec will receive a small upfront payment, together with commercial milestones and significant royalties.
Jingxin Pharma will initiate clinical trials with EVT 201 in China in 2011. All development costs will be borne by Jingxin Pharma. Evotec will have the right to reference clinical data produced by Jingxin Pharma to support potential further development of EVT 201 in other territories.
Mr. Lu Gang, Chairman of the Board and General Manager of Jingxin Pharma, said: “Although certain aspects of insomnia are addressed by current treatments, high unmet medical needs remain for patients suffering from sleep problems. In two Phase II clinical trials Evotec has demonstrated that EVT 201 potentially offers advantages to existing insomnia agents. We are encouraged to further reveal the potential of this programme to the benefit of patients that are not adequately treated.”
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec AG, commented: “Jingxin Pharma is an enthusiastic partner keen to develop EVT 201 for China as the major emerging pharmaceutical market. This deal allows finally the further progression of Evotec’s insomnia programme and therefore represents an important step in realising the drug candidate’s intrinsic value.”
About EVT 201
EVT 201 represents a potential “best in class” treatment for insomnia. Evotec has conducted two Phase II trials of EVT 201 in adult and elderly primary insomnia patients. Both trials demonstrated that treatment with EVT 201 produces large improvements in sleep onset and maintenance measures. In the trial in elderly patients EVT 201 was also objectively demonstrated to have a next-day benefit, namely a reduction of daytime sleepiness.
About Jingxin Pharma
Jingxin Pharma was established in 1990 and now emerges among the Top 100 companies in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry. Jingxin Pharma employs over 1500 people and its principal activity is to manufacture and sell pharmaceuticals ingredients and finished dosage forms. It focuses on quinolone antibiotics and cardiovascular drugs. Jingxin Pharma has two manufacturing sites for APIs (at Guangfeng in Jiangxi Province and at Shangyu near Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province) and two manufacturing sites for Dosage forms (at Xinchang near Hangzhou and in Inner Mongolia) along with capacity of 1.2 billion Tablets & Capsules per year. Jingxin Pharma has two R&D centre (at Xinchang near Hangzhou and Zhangjiang in Shanghai).Jingxin Pharma has Chinese GMP, ISO14001 approvals, KFDA approvals and Germany GMP approvals for Finished Dosage forms and APIs’ facility. For additional information please go to www.jingxinpharm.com
About Evotec AG
Evotec is a leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs with operational sites in Europe and Asia. The Company has built substantial drug discovery expertise and an industrialised platform that can drive new innovative small molecule compounds into the clinic. In addition, Evotec has built a deep internal knowledge base in the treatment of diseases related to neuroscience, pain, oncology, inflammation and metabolic diseases. Leveraging these skills and expertise the Company intends to develop best-in-class differentiated therapeutics and deliver superior science-driven discovery alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Evotec has long-term discovery alliances with partners including Boehringer Ingelheim, CHDI, Genentech, Novartis, Ono Pharmaceutical and Roche. Evotec has product candidates in clinical development and a series of preclinical compounds and development partnerships, including for example a strategic alliance with Roche for the EVT 100 compound family, subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonists for use in treatment-resistant depression and an alliance in the field of diabetes with Andromeda (Teva). For additional information please go to www.evotec.com.
Forward-Looking Statements -- Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about our 2010 financial outlook and our expected financial results in future quarters, our revised revenue guidance for 2010 and expected revenue growth, our ability to deliver on our liquidity guidance, our belief that we are on course to sustainable profitability latest in 2012, our expectations and assumptions concerning regulatory, clinical and business strategies, the progress of our clinical development programmes and timing of the commencement and results of our clinical trials, strategic collaborations and management’s plans, objectives and strategies. These 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. In particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things: risks that product candidates may fail in the clinic or may not be successfully marketed or manufactured; the risk that we will not achieve the anticipated benefits of our collaborations, partnerships and acquisitions in the timeframes expected, or at all; risks relating to our ability to advance the development of product candidates currently in the pipeline or in clinical trials; our inability to further identify, develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the risk that competing products may be more successful; our inability to interest potential partners in our technologies and products; our inability to achieve commercial success for our products and technologies; our inability to protect our intellectual property and the cost of enforcing or defending our intellectual property rights; our failure to comply with regulations relating to our products and product candidates, including FDA requirements; the risk that the FDA may interpret the results of our studies differently than we have; the risk that clinical trials may not result in marketable products; the risk that we may be unable to successfully secure regulatory approval of and market our drug candidates; and risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the U.S. and internationally.
The list of risks above is not exhaustive. Our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other documents filed with, or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission, contain additional factors that could impact our businesses and financial performance. 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
