Evotec AG has been awarded a 'Programm für Innovation' ("PROFI") grant for a period of two years from the Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank ("IFB Hamburg"), the central development institution of the Free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg, to identify and develop therapeutic antibodies directed against novel immune-checkpoints on T-cells to improve future cancer treatments.
Immuno-oncology has emerged as a particularly promising field to create curative treatment options for many cancer patients. Over the recent years, Evotec's drug discovery and development infrastructure has been adapted to facilitate high-throughput functional screening of monoclonal antibody candidates in complex biological assays. This grant will fund a program focused on demonstrating pre-clinical activity for at least one first-in-class antibody against novel immune-checkpoints active against patient-derived tumor cells, a hallmark of current immuno-oncological approaches.
This EVT Innovate-anchored program is designed to utilize synergies between Evotec's infrastructure for the identification of novel therapeutic antibodies and Evotec's collaboration partner, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf ("UKE"), for the long-term understanding of immunological mechanisms, antibody-based cancer therapies and oncological screening.
The grant funding has been awarded under the IFB's 'Programm für Innovation' created to fund Hamburg-based R&D projects delivering novel or significantly improved products, processes or services across different disciplines. The grant will fund R&D work at Evotec and the UKE for a period of two-years.