- Evotec contributes $ 6 m to Carrick's $ 95 m funding round through a top-class global investor consortium
- Carrick Therapeutics ("Carrick") and Evotec build discovery alliance for novel oncology targets
Hamburg, Germany, 04 October 2016: Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) announced today that in line with its strategy to participate in promising corporate formations it will deepen its already existing relationship with Carrick. Evotec will invest up to $ 6 m towards Carrick's latest funding round. The total $ 95 m round was led by ARCH Venture Partners and Woodford Investment Management with participation from Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Google Ventures (GV), Lightstone Ventures, and Evotec AG.
Carrick, headquartered in Dublin with R&D located in Oxford and Dublin has a clear vision for cancer patients: Its mission is to target the molecular pathways that drive the most aggressive and resistant forms of cancer in order to have a major impact on the lives of patients. Instead of banking on a single compound or biological mechanism, Carrick is building an innovative portfolio of first-in-class treatments that target multiple mechanisms of the most aggressive forms of cancer, and which will be tailored to an individual patient's tumour. To support this mission Evotec will provide its full range of discovery and oncology services, through its discovery and pre-clinical platform. Carrick will progress multiple programmes through hit-to-lead and lead optimisation with the goal of delivering multiple development candidates.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec commented: "We are very excited to be part of creating and co-owning a next generation leading oncology company. Putting all Evotec's tools that support innovation and capital efficiency at work will allow Carrick to very rapidly progress a first-in-class oncology pipeline."
Chief Executive of Carrick Therapeutics, Dr Elaine Sullivan, said: "This is a unique new venture in cancer treatment, backed by some of the highest quality investors in the field. There is a significant unmet need in cancer treatment, and targeting aggressive and resistant disease is an area where we can make a real difference to patients' lives. Working with Evotec has allowed us to build a pipeline with optimal speed and highest quality."
No further financial details are disclosed.
Evotec's financial guidance for 2016, also with regard to liquidity, remains unchanged, despite the recent investment in Topas Therapeutics and now Carrick Therapeutics.