Evotec acquires zebrafish technology from Oxford University spin-out

Acquisition

The German drug discovery specialist Evotec AG is to acquire the zebrafish screening operations of Summit Corporation plc, including operations in Abingdon, UK, and Singapore, for £500,000 cash.

The zebrafish technology provides whole organism data about the safety and toxicity of drug-like molecules at an early stage of lead optimization, thereby allowing prioritisation of the most promising compounds early in the drug discovery process.

Summit was spun out of Oxford University in 2003, and has since built the world’s leading zebrafish capability, collaborating with more than 25 pharma companies. The disposal of this business is a fire sale forced on Summit because the financial crisis has made it impossible to raise any new funding from investors. The company now hopes to regroup around its iminosugar drug discovery platform.