Evotec

Company formation

Evotec SE was established as Evotec BioSystems GmbH in 1993 by a group of founders that included Karsten Henco, Ulrich Aldag, Freimut Leidenberger, Heinrich Schulte, Rudolf Rigler, Charles Weissmann and Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen. Eigen won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work measuring ultrafast chemical reactions.

Evotec Biosystems went public in 1999, listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol EVT. The following year, it merged with the British chemical services company Oxford Asymmetry International plc, adopting the new name Evotec OAI.

In 2002, the company was divided into two business divisions; "Discovery and Development Services" and "Tools and Technologies," creating the wholly owned subsidiary Evotec Technologies GmbH. Four years later, this division was sold to PerkinElmer in a move that, according to Evotec, allowed it to focus its resources towards the discovery and development of new pharmaceutical drugs. The company later rebranded as Evotec AG in 2005, with an aim to "reflect the growing emphasis of proprietary drug development in its business model and have a single "new" name which stands for both parts of its business."

Notable acquisitions

In 2008, Evotec acquired US-based Renovis in a $152 million stock deal, allowing it to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange. One year later, the company announced it was voluntarily de-listing its American Depositary Receipt to cut costs and concentrate its share trading on the German TecDAX platform.

In 2010, the company acquired DeveloGen AG, a spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry that was developing novel therapies for metabolic disorders, such as diabetes.

In 2011, Evotec acquired Kinaxo Biotechnologies GmbH, a Munich-based, privately owned biotech company. Kinaxo specialized in chemical proteomics and its application in small molecule drug discovery. That same year, Evotec took control of Compound Focus the compound management arm of the Galapagos group subsidiary Biofocus.

In January 2013, Evotec acquired CCS Cell Culture Service GmbH, a Hamburg-based company that supplied custom cells and cell-based reagents for drug discovery applications.

In May 2014, Evotec acquired Euprotec for $3.15 million, a contract research organization (CRO) with expertise in infectious diseases and respiratory biology.

In December 2016, Evotec completed its acquisition of Cyprotex, a preclinical contract research organization.

In July 2017, Evotec acquired the integrated drug development services provider Aptuit for €256 million.

In recent years, Evotec has made two significant deals with French pharmaceutical company Sanofi. In 2015, Evotec took over Sanofi's small-molecule drug development site in Toulouse, France, bringing approximately 200 Sanofi chemists into its team. In 2018, Evotec acquired Sanofi's infectious disease unit, absorbing an additional 100 Sanofi employees and a majority of its anti-infectives research portfolio, including more than 10 R&D assets. Per the agreement, Evotec will continue to run infectious disease R&D operations in Lyon, France. Evotec's initial focus will be on antimicrobial resistance ("AMR") and superbug infections, tuberculosis, and malaria, as well as the creation of novel antiviral therapies with new mechanisms of action.

In April 2019, Evotec AG announced it had completed its conversion into a company under European law (Societas Europaea, "SE"). It officially adopted the legal name Evotec SE, with its registration in the commercial register of the District Court of Hamburg.

In May 2020, the company announced its acquisition of Just Biologics, a U.S.-based biologics company previously backed by the Gates Foundation.

In June 2020, Evotec and two investment partners – Samsara BioCapital and KCK Ltd. – announced the launch of Autobahn Labs, a virtual incubator for early-stage research programs, headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

In May 2022, Evotec announced the company are set to acquire Italy-based cell technology firm Rigenerand. The deal worth $24.5 million will include Evotec EVOcells cell therapy platform to Rigenerand's cGMP.

References

References

1. "Evotec 2021 Annual Report".
2. "Evotec 2021 Annual Report".
3. "Evotec 2021 Annual Report".
4. "Evotec, Celgene Partner on Targeted Protein Degradation for Drug Discovery".
5. (24 July 2017). "Bayer and Evotec Extend their Endometriosis Partnership".
6. "Sanofi, Evotec in major infectious disease R&D transfer and license deal".
7. "Evotec enters iPSC-based drug discovery partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim in ophthalmology".
8. (24 August 2006). "Evotec and CDHI form Huntington Disease alliance".
9. "Evotec and Lilly enter into drug discovery collaboration in metabolic diseases".
10. "Evotec and Takeda enter strategic RNA targeting drug discovery and development alliance".
11. "Evotec and Sernova announce exclusive strategic partnership for iPSC-based beta cell replacement therapy to advance a 'functional cure' for diabetes".
12. "Evotec Share".
13. (16 May 2024). "Evotec AG listed in MDAX".
14. "MDAX".
15. "Evotec completed US IPO".
16. Jackle H, Rotte C, & Gruss P (2017) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5982432/ Manfred Eigen: the realization of his vision of Biophysical Chemistry]. European biophysics journal Vol. 47, pp. 319-323.
17. "Manfred Eigen".
18. (2000-07-31). "Oxford Asymmetry agrees to German merger worth £316m".
19. (8 December 2006). "PerkinElmer buys Evotec Technologies".
20. "Evotec Ag (EVT:Xetra)".
21. "Evotec Plans Acquisition Of Renovis In $152M Stock Deal".
22. "Evotec To Voluntarily Delist American Depositary Shares From NASDAQ – Quick Facts".
23. "Evotec acquires metabolic diseases specialist DeveloGen for €14M".
24. "Evotec Completes Acquisition of Kinaxo Biotechnologies GmbH".
25. "Evotec acquires compound management business".
26. "Evotec acquires Cell Culture Service for €1.2m in cash".
27. (28 May 2014). "Evotec Buys Euprotec for Up to $3.15M".
28. (15 December 2016). "Evotec completes Cyprotex acquisition".
29. "Aptuit sold for $300 million".
30. "Sanofi to send more researchers to Evotec – March 12, 2018 Issue – Vol. 96 Issue 11".
31. (18 June 2018). "Sanofi Agrees to Transfer Infectious Disease Unit, 100 Employees to Evotec".
32. "Evotec AG completes conversion into Evotec SE".
33. (29 May 2019). "Evotec jumps into biologics through $90m Just.Bio acquisition".
34. (June 24, 2020). "Evotec, Samsara BioCapital, and KCK Launch Autobahn Labs".
35. (31 May 2022). "Evotec to acquire cell technology firm Rigenerand".