Since the discovery of Insulin, a century ago, peptide-based drug discovery has yielded over 100 FDA-approved peptide therapeutics, with hundreds more currently undergoing clinical and preclinical evaluation.

Peptide therapeutics have gained significant traction in the pharmaceutical market, accounting for an estimated $35-40 billion USD in sales in 2022. Future prospectives are looking extremely positive with recent examples such as Semaglutide and Terzepatide demonstrating the potential for blockbuster peptide-based therapies.

In addition to the development of peptidic drugs based on natural biologically relevant peptides such as hormones, neurotrasmitters and the like, peptide drug hunting can enable therapeutic target classes generally considered to be poorly druggable by small molecules such as the modulation of a specific protein-protein interactions, and peptides can also be used as targeting motifs for the delivery of small molecules, toxins, therapeutic oligonucleotides and other chemical matter to specific cells or tissues.

Evotec offers advanced enabling technologies, including state-of-the-art microwave-assisted solid phase peptide synthesis, and expertise in this exponentially expanding field of applied research to support your Peptide Drug Discovery Project.

Several strategies can be applied to improve proteolytic stability, permeability, metabolic clearance and physico-chemical properties known to be important for the optimization of human dose.

Our experience in peptide design and synthesis, via automated solid phase and hybrid solid/solution phase methodologies covers a large segment of the peptide chemical space; from simple linear and cyclized or stapled peptides through to mini proteins (beyond 60 amino acids), including the incorporation of non-natural and modified amino acids. Beyond the solid phase we have experience in the synthesis of more complex constructs ranging from polycyclic to multimeric peptides, including heteromers with potential for poly-pharmacology, in addition to conjugates of peptides with small molecules, bio-relevant macromolecules and half-life extension modifications.

Our organic synthesis platform can also support your peptide drug discovery projects with the design and synthesis of specific modified amino acids to move beyond the proteogenic space.