• PETRA PHARMA CORPORATION TO HARNESS EVOTEC’S INDIGO PLATFORM TO ACCELERATE ITS LEAD PROGRAMME (PETRA-01 FOR ONCOLOGY INDICATIONS) THROUGH IND FILING
• EVOTEC ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE SUCCESS-BASED MILESTONES AND RESEARCH FUNDING
• EVOTEC’S INDIGO, A KEY VALUE-DRIVING COMPONENT OF ITS EVT EXECUTE BUSINESS SEGMENT, ACCELERATES EARLY DRUG CANDIDATES INTO THE CLINIC BY REDUCING TIME FROM NOMINATION TO REGULATORY SUBMISSION

Hamburg, Germany, 11 April 2018: Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) announced today a strategic collaboration with Petra Pharma Corporation (“Petra”). Through the collaboration, Petra will access Evotec’s INDiGO platform to accelerate the development of its lead programme Petra-01, which is being developed for a range of oncological indications, through to the submission of an Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the close of 2018. Evotec will leverage its highly skilled experts across all disciplines, primarily oncology, to implement a tailored drug development strategy for Petra-01 and will receive undisclosed research funding and success-based milestones.

“Evotec has a strong track record of successful integrated development and INDiGO packages on behalf of their clients,” said Brian O'Callaghan, President and Chief Executive Officer at Petra Pharma. “Our team at Petra is excited to progress our lead programme and look forward to achieving our goal to file an IND by the end of 2018. We are confident Evotec’s INDiGO programme and the team they assembled are the best partner to ensure the rapid and high-quality progression of Petra-01.“

Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, added: “Our INDiGO platform has proven to reduce the development time and cost of taking a pre-clinical candidate through to producing a quality data package for CTA and IND filings. Petra is a leader in the emerging NY life science ecosystem and we look forward to working with them long-term. We are excited for the opportunity to work with Petra on advancing its promising oncology candidate, Petra-01.”

ABOUT EVOTEC’S INDIGO PLATFORM

The INDiGO platform is a key value-generating component of Evotec’s broad EVT Execute business segment. INDiGO accelerates early drug candidates into the clinic by reducing time from nomination to regulatory submission in 52 weeks, and under circumstances, even less. We achieve accelerated development by tightly integrating traditional drug silos into a single project managed under one roof.  The programme has been proven to reduce time and cost while achieving a quality data package for CTA/IND level regulatory filings.

Evotec’s INDiGO projects are managed by our most experienced, dedicated project managers and leading world-class drug development professionals implementing tailored development strategies designed specifically for the molecule, therapeutic area and strategic needs. The project plan is designed to integrate development areas: API Manufacture, Formulation Development, Clinical Supply, Safety Assessment, DMPK, Bioanalysis Studies and Regulatory Submission Documents Preparation.

ABOUT PETRA PHRMA CORPORATION

Petra is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering and developing novel therapies that modulate phosphoinositide (PI) signaling pathways for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. PI pathways regulate fundamental processes of cellular growth and metabolism. PI-modifying enzymes are among the most frequently mutated proteins in cancer. Petra was founded in 2016 to advance the cutting-edge research of Dr. Lewis Cantley from Weill Cornell Medical Center and Dr. Nathanael Gray from Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Petra Pharma's office and lab headquarters is located at the Alexandria Center for Life Science, in New York. For more information, visit www.petrapharmacorp.com.

ABOUT PETRA-01 

The lead program targets PIP4K2, an enzyme that phosphorylates PI(5)P (phosphoinositide 5 phosphate) to yield PI(4,5)P2 (phosphoinositide 4, 5, phosphate). Both substrate and product are important signaling molecules involved in regulation of cellular metabolism and growth. Published reports and Petra’s internal data support a role for inhibitors of PIP4K2 in selective killing of cancerous cells. This program has benefited from a highly productive collaboration with Sprint Biosciences, a leading fragment based drug discovery company. For more information, visit www.petrapharmacorp.com.

MEDIA CONTACT PETRA PHARMA

Kelly Zekas
media@petrapharmacorp.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS 

Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.