Centogene and Evotec Enter Rare Disease Drug Discovery Strategic Partnership

Rare Disease Staff

Rare disease diagnostic company Centogene said it has entered into and global strategic collaboration with the drug discovery and development company Evotec focused on discovering compounds to treat rare metabolic diseases diseases.

The collaboration will develop a high-throughput platform for testing novel small molecules to treat this subset of rare conditions. It brings together Evotec’s induced pluripotent stem cell platform and drug discovery capabilities with Centogene’s medical and genetic insights from its detailed genotype-phenotype database, which can be used to develop biomarkers using patient primary cells.

Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec called the partnership “a perfect match between highly complementary platforms and companies with the potential to open a new chapter in the translatability of pre-clinical discovery efforts into clinic benefits.”

“The identification and development of innovative small molecules to treat rare, hereditary conditions is particularly challenging because of the absence of adequate cellular models and the general lack of specific biomarkers to monitor the different diseases,” said Arndt Rolfs, CEO of Centogene. “With this innovative collaboration between Evotec and Centogene, we can accelerate the development of new drugs.”

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the agreement.

August 27, 2018
Photo: Arndt Rolfs, CEO of Centogene