Niagen Selects Evotec to Advance Preclinical Development of Oral Small-Molecule Candidate

Editor’s Take: Collaborations on early-phase clinical evaluation can help accelerate timelines, reduce development risk, and improve cost efficiency.

Niagen Bioscience selected Evotec as its contract research organization to support advancement of proprietary oral small-molecule candidate NB4168. The collaboration also encompasses NAD Pharmaceuticals, Niagen’s wholly-owned subsidiary.

NAD, as well as Niagen at large, focuses on healthy aging and therapies for accelerated aging and rare genetic diseases. Specifically, the company says it is a global authority on NAD+, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.

Niagen Candidate History

Niagen initially developed NB4168 for treatment of ataxia telangiectasia (A-T), a rare pediatric genetic disease that has no approved therapies.

A-T usually presents in early childhood and can be characterized by worsening neurological disability over time. This includes progressive loss of motor coordination, impaired immune function, increased infection susceptibility, pulmonary complications, and substantially elevated cancer risk.

Evotec Role Defined

In this new partnership, Evotec, at its state-of-the-art campus in Verona, Italy, will conduct pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. The aim here is to validate bioanalytical methods further characterizing NB4168, and support preclinical and Investigational New Drug-enabling development activities.

“Selecting Evotec adds streamlined drug development capabilities and executional scale,” Niagen Bioscience Chief Financial Officer Ozan Pamir said. “This collaboration is an important step in building the pharmacological and bioanalytical evidence required to advance NB4168 toward clinical evaluation.”

“Our collaboration demonstrates the value of Evotec’s integrated development offering,” Evotec EVP and Chief Commercial Officer Ashiq Khan, PhD, said. “NB4168 is a promising program, supported by a defined biological rationale and a focused preclinical development plan. We look forward to helping generate the data needed to inform the next stage of development for this investigational candidate.”