HitGen and Evotec SE Enter Into Drug Discovery Research Collaboration

CHENGDU, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HitGen (688222.SH) today announced that it has entered into a drug discovery research collaboration with Evotec SE to identify small molecule leads against targets of interest to Evotec SE in the field of anti-infectives. HitGen will apply its platform technology, based on the design, synthesis and screening of DNA-encoded libraries (DEL) to discover compounds that bind to certain targets. The identified compounds will be exclusively licensed to Evotec SE. Under the terms of the agreement, HitGen will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and license fee from Evotec SE.

“We are delighted to enter this collaboration with Evotec SE, a leading drug discovery alliance and development partnership company with tremendous success in collaborative R&D. We look forward to working closely with Evotec SE research teams to deliver novel small molecules to their programs,” said Dr. Jin Li, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HitGen.

“HitGen DEL screening platform offers tremendous potential to identify a small molecule binder to Evotec’s target of interest,” said Kara Carter, Executive Vice President Infectious Disease from Evotec SE.

About Evotec SE

Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide and our more than 3,000 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. We cover all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry’s need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases, fibrosis, rare diseases and women’s health. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter @Evotec.

About HitGen Inc.

HitGen is a rapidly growing biotech company with headquarters based in Chengdu, China, with a subsidiary in the USA. HitGen has established an industry-leading platform for early-stage drug discovery research centered on DNA encoded chemical libraries (DELs). HitGen’s DELs include encoded syntheses for hundreds of billions of novel, diverse, drug-like small molecule and macrocycle compounds. These compounds are members of DELs synthesized from many hundreds of distinct chemical scaffolds, designed and assembled with tractable chemistry based on proven results for identifying drug-like leads against biological targets from known and novel classes. HitGen is working with multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies, foundations and research institutes in North America, Europe and Asia to discover and develop novel therapeutics of the future.

For more information, please call [phone] or visit www.hitgen.com.