• beLAB1407 TRANSLATES ACADEMIC INNOVATION FROM LEADING ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS IN THE UK
• THE COLLABORATION LEVERAGES EVOTEC’S UNIQUE MULTIMODALITY PLATFORM TO VALIDATE FIRST-IN-CLASS THERAPEUTIC CONCEPTS FROM THE UNIVERSITIES OF BIRMINGHAM, EDINBURGH, NOTTINGHAM, AND DUNDEE
• BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB JOINS beLAB1407 AS A BIOPHARMA COLLABORATOR

Hamburg, Germany, 06 May 2021:
Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) announced today that the Company, together with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY), has launched beLAB1407, a new $ 20 m academic BRIDGE to identify and advance novel and breakthrough drug discovery opportunities across therapeutic areas from the UK’s top-tier academic institutions. Through a unique combination of Evotec’s drug discovery and development platforms and early-stage therapeutic concepts from the Universities of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Nottingham, and Dundee, beLAB1407 offers a unique route to the advancement of first-in-class therapeutics and the creation of spin-out companies.

Evotec’s BRIDGE (Biomedical Research, Innovation & Development Generation Efficiency) collaborations provide an integrated fund and award framework to validate exciting academic projects in collaborations with Pharma and biotech with the goal to form new companies. Since implementing the first academic BRIDGE ‘LAB282’ in Oxford in November 2016, Evotec has continued to evolve similar collaborations with a variety of academic, Pharma and venture capital partners across Europe and North America.

With beLAB1407 representing the continued refinement of the approach, Evotec links one of Europe’s foremost academic clusters of excellence in the life sciences with Bristol Myers Squibb as a major biopharmaceutical partner dedicated to advancing innovation in therapeutics from academia to patient benefit. The beLAB1407 collaboration builds on the longstanding and successful relationship between Evotec and Bristol Myers Squibb in drug discovery across several therapeutic areas.

Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, said: “We are thrilled to launch beLAB1407 together with our partners at Bristol Myers Squibb with whom we’ve worked on a variety of projects over a period of many years. beLAB1407 provides researchers from the member institutions with a unique way to fast-track their projects, to validate them on our industrial-grade platform and have partnering options including company formations readily available to them.”

Dr Thomas Hanke, Head of Academic Partnerships at Evotec, added: “We are delighted to see the BRIDGE concept gaining further traction in the UK and we very much look forward to working closely with our academic partners in the Midlands and Scotland as well as our colleagues at BMS to identify and accelerate the next generation of first-in-class therapeutics across all modalities and therapeutic areas.”

Dr Rupert Vessey, Executive Vice President and President, Research and Early Development at Bristol Myers Squibb, commented: “This collaboration builds on our important connection to leading European universities. With beLAB1407, we are supporting U.K.-based universities that are exploring many interesting lines of scientific research and discovery. That research combined with Evotec’s proprietary data platforms has the potential to identify new and novel therapies for areas of unmet medical need.”

The name beLAB1407 refers to the distance between Land’s End in the far southwest of Great Britain to its north-easternmost point near the village of John o' Groats in Scotland, which – if travelled by bike – adds up to 1,407 kilometres. To learn more about beLAB1407, please visit www.belab1407.org.

About Evotec’s BRIDGE model: Partnering to accelerate innovation

Evotec has created a new paradigm to translate early-stage academic research to drug discovery and development called “BRIDGE” (Biomedical Research, Innovation & Development Generation Efficiency), an integrated fund and award framework to tap into academic science to accelerate the formation of spin-out companies and generate collaborations with Pharma and biotech. Through these efforts, Evotec has defined a new formula for fast-track early-stage drug discovery. Since the launch of the BRIDGE model in 2016, Evotec has formed and funded a number of different collaborations, e.g. LAB282, LAB150, LAB031, LAB10x, and Autobahn Labs. Please visit www.evotec.com/en/innovate/bridges to learn more about Evotec’s BRIDGEs.

Additional quotes:

David Coleman, Director Enterprise & Innovation, University of Birmingham Enterprise, commented: “Over the last few years, the University of Birmingham has identified a significant pipeline of early stage life science discoveries. The support and investment provided by Evotec and Bristol Myers Squibb through beLAB1407 provides a great opportunity to validate and develop some of these into important therapies for the future, and we’re very excited to be working with them.”

Dr George Baxter, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Innovations, said: “This innovative collaboration represents the best of academic and industry collaboration. We are delighted to be playing our part in such a high calibre project supporting early stage research become reality. The University of Edinburgh already has an impressive track record of drug discovery supported by our world class facilities. This innovative approach gives us even more opportunity to make our ideas work for a better world.”

Dr Andrew Naylor, CEO Nottingham Technology Ventures from the University of Nottingham, said: “beLAB1407 is an innovative model for funding early stage drug discovery projects. It encapsulates a collaboration across four leading UK Universities and two highly reputable commercial partners that will provide insight and skills as well as funding. This presents an opportunity for the university to accelerate its drug discovery research and fast track the process of the creation of spin out companies to commercialise the research to benefit society. The university already has a strong track record of developing successful spin-out companies with a portfolio of 25 companies and notable successful examples in Life Sciences include Scancell Plc, Oncimmune Plc, and Exonate Ltd. This collaboration with Evotec and Bristol Myers Squib will only strengthen that further.”

Dr David McBeth, Director of Research and Innovation Services at the the University of Dundee, said: “beLAB1407 is an initiative that will allow creative institutions like the University of Dundee to capitalise on the ground-breaking research that is carried out here every day. The University is proud to champion a culture of entrepreneurship, and we already have an enviable track record in producing successful spin-out companies. Working as part of beLAB1407 will further allow ourselves and our partner institutions to accelerate the drug discovery breakthroughs that we make, a move that could ultimately transform outcomes for many patients.”

ABOUT BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY

Bristol Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information about Bristol Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com/gb or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

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.