- ACQUIRED ASSETS FROM NCARDIA AG INCLUDE IP PORTFOLIO, IPSC-BASED CELLULAR PRODUCTS AND AN EXPERIENCED STEM CELL BIOLOGY TEAM
- EXPANSION OF IPSC DISCOVERY PLATFORM STRENGTHENS EVOTEC’S POSITION AS A LEADER IN INNOVATION-DRIVEN TRANSLATIONAL BIOLOGY
Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) today announced that the Company has acquired assets from the stem cell specialist Ncardia AG to advance Evotec’s iPSC platform, one of the leading iPSC-based discovery platforms in the industry. The acquired assets include intellectual property relevant for iPSC-based phenotypic drug discovery, an existing cellular product business around iPSC-derived cells, as well as 17 strong team of stem cell biology experts operating from laboratories at the BioCampus Cologne.
The team has a proven track record of generating multiple disease-relevant cell types from iPSCs and their application in drug discovery. The combination with Evotec’s existing expertise in iPSC biology and the Company’s leading drug discovery platforms will create new opportunities for innovative biology and adds capacity for new and existing partnerships.
Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: “IPSC is a game changing technology with broad applicability across a variety of different indications and drug discovery and development phases. Additional expertise and capacity in the iPSC space as well as a substantial partner network will allow us to further accelerate our efforts to build a world-leading iPSC translational biology platform across different disease areas. We warmly welcome our new team within the Evotec Family.”
No financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
About Evotec and iPSC
Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult cells. The iPSC technology was pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka’s lab in Kyoto, Japan, who showed in 2006 that the introduction of four specific genes encoding transcription factors could convert adult cells into pluripotent stem cells. He was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize along with Sir John Gurdon “for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent”. Pluripotent stem cells hold great promise in the field of regenerative medicine. Because they can propagate indefinitely, as well as give rise to every other cell type in the body (such as neurons, heart, pancreatic and liver cells), they represent a single source of cells that could be used to replace those lost to damage or disease.
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