Evotec, 4-Antibody in Strategic Antibody Selection Pact

Evotec and 4-Antibody have entered into a strategic collaboration under which Evotec will offer a fully integrated antibody discovery and development service. The service combines Evotec’s high throughput and high content screening approach with 4-Antibody’s high throughput antibody selection approach, allowing screening of large and diverse antibody populations for desired functionality and activity at a much earlier stage of selection. This combined approach aims to substantially reduce attrition rates at later development stages and is expected to be beneficial in aiding earlier distinction and selection between antagonist and agonist antibodies.

Evotec will initially pay a $2.6 million access fee to 4-Antibody, which will be fully reimbursed from future returns. Going forward both companies will share profits.

Dr. Robert Burns, 4-Antibody’s chief executive officer, said, “This collaboration will allow pharma players who elect to fully outsource antibody drug discovery access to our platform. It’s an ideal partnership since it gives 4-Antibody access to a broader market beyond our primary targets — the companies we think of as ‘technology internalizers.’ Our primary business model remains unchanged but with the Evotec collaboration we can now offer a fully integrated discovery to development model in the antibody drug space for pharma players who are looking for complete outsourcing.”

Dr. Werner Lanthaler, chief executive officer at Evotec, said, “We are excited to launch our high-content screening capabilities for antibody selection in conjunction with 4-Antibody, one of the technological leaders in the antibody field. Through a combination of our capabilities, we target an approach to select for functional antibodies. This ‘EVOmAb’ turnkey solution will deliver to our customers a much higher chance to bring an antibody to the market than traditional affinity-selected antibody approaches.”