Evotec has signed an agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, to develop pre-clinical candidates for an undisclosed neurological disease. Evotec will provide drug discovery expertise covering in vitro biology, medicinal chemistry and in vitro and in vivo pharmacology.

As part of the collaboration, Evotec will apply their integrated drug discovery expertise and technologies to identify interesting small molecules for the selected target. The molecules will be further optimised and progressed through lead optimization to a pre-clinical candidate.

The cooperation will take place within the "NEU²-Consortium" framework and partially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.