Evotec OAI and Byk Gulden/Altana Enter into a Collaboration

26-10-2001: Evotec OAI AG, Hamburg, Germany, a supplier of integrated high-value added drug discovery services, announced today a contract agreement with Byk Gulden Lomberg Chemische Fabrik GmbH, Altana AG’s pharmaceutical group, Konstanz, Germany. In close collaboration with Byk Gulden, Evotec OAI will start a novel assay development programme based on Evotec OAI’s novel detection platform for high throughput imaging. Following successful development of the assay principle, Byk Gulden will acquire Evotec OAI’s cell reader and will integrate it into its own screening systems. Evotec OAI has the right to use this application in the Company’s service offering. Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

Joern Aldag, Evotec OAI’s President and CEO, said:

“We are delighted about this new and promising collaboration with Byk Gulden. Applying Evotec OAI’s leading-edge technologies, we once again demonstrate our competence in developing highly innovative assay systems tailored to our partners’ requirements while supporting our clients in their drug discovery efforts. With this co-operation, we will also use for the first time our novel detection system for the analysis of cellular assays.”

Dr. Hans-Joachim Lohrisch, Byk Gulden’s CEO, stated:

“The cooperation with our partner Evotec OAI is a further, integral part of our net of internal efforts and external cooperations aimed at speeding up drug discovery and to secure product supply by new genomic technologies. The assay principle and detection system developed together with Evotec OAI will allow further, innovative applications in our HTS-systems.” High Throughput Imaging

Evotec OAI has now added another detection method beyond the single molecule analysis (FCS+plus). It produces and analyses confocal microscopical images of high spatial resolution. Intra-cellular activities can thus be visualised and for the first time recorded precisely in an uHTS format. The detector is able to handle on-line more than 200,000 high-resolution images per day. The platform may also be applied to biochemical assays that do not require single molecule detection but analyse extremely low concentrations in a high throughput mode.