Evotec has entered a target and drug discovery partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, focusing on induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based disease modelling for ophthalmologic disorders.
Context
Millions of people are affected by vision-related diseases worldwide, and there is a high unmet need for novel therapeutic solutions.
The partnership
Through phenotypic screening of human iPSC-derived cells, supported by Evotec’s PanOmics platform, Evotec will identify small molecules able to modulate disease phenotypes, and then validate the underlying promising targets for potential therapeutic interventions. Boehringer Ingelheim will continue with the discovery and development of potential therapeutic candidates.
Official comments
Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, said: “We are excited to utilise our unique iPSC- and PanOmics-based approaches to ophthalmologic diseases in this new partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim. Phenotypic screening approaches have a long history of delivering highly effective drugs based on novel molecular mechanisms. Phenotypic screens based on human iPSC-derived disease models combined with our unbiased PanOmics readouts are more likely to deliver disease relevant drugs than any other cell-based screening approach.”
