Sanofi, Evotec Announce Strategic Collaboration for Diabetes

Evotec AG EVOTF and Sanofi SNY today announced a strategic collaboration in the field of diabetes. The goal of this collaboration will be to develop a beta cell replacement therapy based on functional human beta cells derived from human stem cells. In addition, Sanofi and Evotec will also use human beta cells for high-throughput drug screening to identify beta cell active small molecules or biologics. Both companies will make significant contributions to this collaboration in terms of expertise, platforms and resources. The collaboration will further enhance and complement Sanofi's extensive diabetes portfolio and will extend Evotec's metabolic disease and stem cell-based drug discovery programs. The agreement between Evotec and Sanofi triggers an upfront payment of € 3 m, potential pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones which could total over € 300 m as well as significant royalties and research payments. Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: "The use of human stem cells in drug discovery and development is See full press release