Extend aims to develop drug discovery partnerships with leading academic institutions from Italy to accelerate their promising therapeutics for commercialisation
Hamburg, Germany, 28 October 2022: Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809; NASDAQ: EVO) today announced the launch of “Extend”, a translational BRIDGE partnership in cooperation with CDP Venture Capital Sgr, a strategic pillar to Italy’s economic growth and innovation, and Angelini Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital arm of the multi-business industrial group Angelini Industries.
Extend is a joint venture between Evotec, CDP Venture Capital and Angelini Ventures to develop translational drug discovery partnerships with highly renowned universities and research centres in Italy. Extend aims to use Evotec’s best-in-class technology platforms to accelerate the translation of academic innovation into robust and investable data points and Angelini Ventures’ network and knowledge of the life science sector to launch successful new companies.
The partnership brings together several academic institutions with strong track records in life science innovation from across Italy: Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, the Universities of Milan, Florence, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Padua, Sapienza in Rome, the regional research district of Puglia through H-Bio and the Human Technopole. Extend will be located within Milan’s MIND district, the new centre of scientific excellence in Italy focused on life sciences.
Evotec’s BRIDGE (Biomedical Research, Innovation & Development Generation Efficiency) collaborations provide an integrated fund and award framework to validate exciting academic projects in collaborations with Pharma, biotech, and Venture Capital partners with the goal to form new companies.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented:
We are excited to launch Extend together with our partners at CDP Venture Capital and Angelini Ventures. The Academic sector in Italy has historically been a driving force behind innovation at a global scale. Extend provides researchers from the member institutions with a unique way to fast-track their projects, validate them on our industrial-grade platform and create partnering options that include the formation of new companies.
Enrico Resmini, CEO and General Manager of CDP Venture Capital, said:
The launch of the Extend National Technology Transfer Hub adds a key step to the path we are building to bridge the Italian tech transfer gap and open University laboratories to international markets. The pharmaceutical and drug discovery sectors represent one of the most striking examples of how research and deep tech technologies can shape people’s lives in a short time, as we have all experienced first-hand during the health emergency.
Prof. Sergio Marullo di Condojanni, CEO of Angelini Industries, added:
We are delighted to participate in the creation of Polo Extend together with high-level partners in the biotech and innovation sectors. Being involved in this project represents an important opportunity for Angelini Industries to contribute to the development of the Italian innovation ecosystem, of which Extend represents a virtuous example. The participation of Angelini Ventures, under the leadership of CEO and Managing Director Paolo Di Giorgio, underlines our desire to strengthen the bridge between the excellence of Italian academic research and the development of drug discovery programs in order to identify new treatment options”
About Extend
Extend is a translational BRIDGE joint venture founded by Evotec, CDP Venture Capital, and Angelini Ventures in 2022. Extend brings together leading academic institutions from Italy to accelerate their most promising assets towards commercialisation. To learn more about Extend, please visit www.extend-tthub.com.
Additional Quotes
“This partnership bears witness to the excellence and attractiveness of Milan University in life science research. It seizes the opportunity to translate the discoveries and innovations of our scientific community into tangible improvements in people’s quality of life, advancing preclinical projects to the level required to compete on the market. My hope is that, in this way, our university will be able to give a tangible contribution to technology transfer as a key mission for public researchers”, said Maria Pia Abbracchio, Vice Rector in charge of Research Coordination and Promotion at Milan University.
Professor Gianvito Martino, scientific director of IRCCS Ospedale San Raffaele in Milan, said: “The creation of the Extend Hub testifies once again how the pharmaceutical sector is the one in which academia-industry partnerships are consolidating the most on a global level. We warmly welcome this initiative, in which we participate with conviction, since we believe that it is precisely in this field that the collaboration between research, industry and the financial sector – even with the creation of start-ups – is an unavoidable path to be truly competitive internationally”.
About Evotec’s BRIDGE model: Partnering to accelerate innovation
Evotec has created a new paradigm to translate early-stage academic research to drug discovery and development called “BRIDGE” (Biomedical Research, Innovation & Development Generation Efficiency), an integrated fund and award framework to tap into academic science to accelerate the formation of spin-out companies and generate collaborations with Pharma and biotech. Through these efforts, Evotec has defined a new formula for fast-track early-stage drug discovery. Since the launch of the BRIDGE model in 2016, Evotec has formed and funded a number of different collaborations, e.g. LAB282, LAB150, Autobahn-Labs, Argobio, beLAB2122, beLAB1407, and Danube Labs. Please visit www.evotec.com/en/innovate/bridges to learn more about Evotec’s BRIDGEs.
