DGAP-News
EVOTEC AND MARS INNOVATION ESTABLISH STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO LAUNCH FIBROCOR THERAPEUTICS
DGAP-News: Evotec AG / Key word(s): Alliance
Toronto, Canada and Hamburg, Germany, 17 January 2017: |
Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) and
MaRS Innovation today announced the launch of Fibrocor Therapeutics LP
("Fibrocor"), a Toronto-based company focused on developing first-in-class
therapeutics targeting fibrotic diseases. The company was launched with CDN
$ 2.8 m (approx. $ 2.1 m) financing, which includes cash from MaRS
Innovation. Evotec will provide all drug discovery activities and will also
receive an equity stake.
Fibrocor takes a new approach to understanding and treating fibrosis,
bringing together clinical expertise and access to disease tissue with
high-throughput molecular analysis infrastructure and expertise in
clinically-predictive animal models of fibrosis.
The company is co-founded with leading academic and clinician scientists
from world-class academic institutions in Toronto, including Dr Richard
Gilbert MD, PhD, Canada Research Chair in Diabetic Complications and Head
of Endocrinology at St. Michael's Hospital and Scientist with the
hospital's Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science; Dr Darren Yuen,
MD, PhD, Nephrologist with St. Michael's and Scientist with its Keenan
Research Centre for Biomedical Science; and Dr Jeff Wrana, PhD, Senior
Investigator at Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health
System. The academic/clinical team is complemented by management and
business development from MaRS Innovation and drug discovery and
development services from Evotec.
"Through Fibrocor we have created a transformational partnership with
Evotec to translate Toronto's world-class fibrosis expertise into therapies
for patients worldwide", said Dr Rafi Hofstein, President and CEO of MaRS
Innovation. "We are building on our recent success of Triphase in the area
of oncology and applying it to a new therapeutic cluster in the area of
fibrosis."