Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, April 30, 2024 – Bayer and the German-based life science company, Evotec, announced today that they have updated the focus of their strategic collaboration to developing innovative precision treatments for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs).

The collaboration aims to identify and validate novel targets, with the goal of building a portfolio of precision cardiology therapeutics by leveraging Evotec's disease modelling capabilities using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). iPSCs provide unique opportunities to identify new disease mechanisms and pathways for novel treatments.

Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will contribute drug targets and a comprehensive set of high-quality technology platforms for the development of innovative treatment options.

"This development takes our long-standing collaboration with Evotec to a new level, and has the added benefit of lessons learned from working together the past 12 years,” said Juergen Eckhardt, M.D., Head of Business Development & Licensing at Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “We remain committed to develop innovative therapies for patients in need and to tackle the high burden of cardiovascular disease."

“Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally,” said Dr. Christian Rommel, Head of Research and Development at Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “The refocused collaboration will leverage Evotec's industrialized iPSC-based disease modeling platform and Bayer’s leadership in cardiology to advance a portfolio of innovative therapies for cardiovascular diseases with high unmet medical need. This complements our focus on disease areas where we can truly improve the standard of care by delivering superior therapeutic solutions to patients in need.”

“In order to move the treatment paradigm beyond disease management, it is important to advance our understanding of the disease-relevant molecular mechanisms underlying cardiovascular diseases,” said Dr. Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec. “Our approach is based on highly validated disease models to identify novel targets and profile drug candidates more comprehensively for their efficacy and safety. Intervening with these disease-associated mechanisms more comprehensively will enable the development of more effective, disease modifying therapies with higher relevance for CVD to respond to the substantial unmet need associated with cardiovascular diseases.”

Bayer and Evotec will share responsibilities during the pre-clinical development of potential clinical candidates. Bayer will be responsible for any subsequent clinical development and commercialization.

Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

About Bayer’s Commitment in Cardiovascular Diseases
Bayer is a leader in cardiology and is advancing a portfolio of innovative treatments in cardiovascular (CV) diseases of high unmet medical need. The strategy is to unlock the strong potential of the future CV market by transforming Bayer’s portfolio into precision cardiology, addressing the high CV disease burden, and driving the long-term growth. Bayer’s portfolio in the field of cardiovascular diseases already includes a number of innovative products and compounds in various stages of preclinical and clinical development.

About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, “Health for all, Hunger for none,” the company’s products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 47.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 5.8 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.com.

About EVOTEC SE
Evotec is a life science company with a unique business model that delivers on its mission to discover and develop highly effective therapeutics and make them available to the patients. The Company’s multimodality platform comprises a unique combination of innovative technologies, data and science for the discovery, development, and production of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products. Evotec provides high value pipeline co-creating partnerships and solutions to all Top 20 Pharma and over 800 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, as well as other healthcare stakeholders. Evotec has strategic activities in a broad range of currently underserved therapeutic areas, including e.g. neurology, oncology, as well as metabolic and infectious diseases. Within these areas of expertise, Evotec aims to create the world-leading co-owned pipeline for innovative therapeutics and has to-date established a portfolio of more than 200 proprietary and co-owned R&D projects from early discovery to clinical development. Evotec operates globally with more than 5,000 highly qualified people. The Company’s 17 sites offer highly synergistic technologies and services and operate as complementary clusters of excellence. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on X/Twitter @Evotec and LinkedIn.

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Forward-Looking Statements
This release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Bayer’s public reports which are available on the Bayer website at www.bayer.com. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Bayer Media Contact:
Lisa Hennig, phone +49 172 8693420
Email: lisa.hennig@bayer.com

Evotec Media Contact:
Gabriele Hansen, phone +49 160 7164389
Email: gabriele.hansen@evotec.com

Hinnerk Rohwedder, phone +49 151 40704843
Email: hinnerk.rohwedder@evotec.com

Source:- Bayer