Funding
Evotec AG will receive funding of up to €1.5 million from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to advance its H3 receptor antagonist programme into the clinic, as part of Neu2, a national research programme developing treatments for central nervous system diseases.
The company has already identified and optimised H3 receptor antagonists through to preclinical development, and the grant will now allow Evotec to advance the programme through Phase I clinical studies.
The histamine H3 receptor is a target of high interest because of evidence that blocking this receptor in the brain can improve cognition, alertness and attention. H3 receptor antagonists therefore have the potential to become an important new class of therapy in a number of central nervous system disorders, including excessive fatigue associated with conditions such as multiple sclerosis.
Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, said, “We are happy that the Neu2 consortium has chosen to support our H3 receptor antagonist programme for further development within the BioPharma initiative.”
The Neu2 consortium, including Evotec, MerckSerono, the European ScreeningPort GmbH, Bionamics GmbH, and the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, among others, was a winner of Germany’s BioPharma initiative, a nationwide strategic competition organised by BMBF in support of drug discovery programmes in the German pharma and biotech industry.
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