Evotec licenses insulin-producing beta cells to Janseen

As part of the agreement, Janssen will pay an initial payment of $8mn and future milestone payments of $200mn to $300 mn per product along with sales royalties to Evotec.

Evotec and Harvard will share upfront, milestone and royalty payments as pre-determined.

Evotec chief scientific officer Cord Dohrmann said, ”Janssen Pharmaceuticals perfectly complements this effort, bringing in world-leading pharmaceutical development expertise as well as the necessary resources to execute on our mission to produce first-in-class therapeutics designed to restore beta cell mass and function."

Harvard chief technology development officer Isaac T. Kohlberg said, "This alliance with Janssen Pharmaceuticals represents an important step towards a real solution for the treatment of diabetes."

Under the license agreement Janssen Pharmaceuticals will provide industrial scope and scale as well as pharmaceutical development expertise and marketing capabilities and Evotec will receive additional research support for discovery and early development work.

The small molecules and biologics were discovered by scientists of Harvard University laboratory of Douglas Melton and were further studied in collaboration with scientists from Evotec, as part of the CureBeta research and development program.