First milestone payment achieved in immune-oncology alliance

Two biotech companies, APEIRON and Evotec, have received the first milestone payment from Sanofi as part of the three-party immune-oncology alliance that was signed in 2015.

The milestone payment, worth €3 million will be split equally to the biotech companies and was triggered when an undisclosed, novel, immune-oncology small molecule was successfully advanced into late-stage pre-clinical development.

“We are delighted by the progress made in our collaboration with Evotec and Sanofi,” said Dr Hans Loibner, chief executive officer of APEIRON Biologics. “Based on our scientific findings and the mode of action, we jointly agreed to accelerate the research and pre-clinical development of this very promising molecule. The successful achievement of this milestone further demonstrates our abilities to drive innovation in the field of immuno-oncology.”

“The Evotec and APEIRON teams are proud to have achieved our first milestone with Sanofi to discover and develop novel immuno-oncology small molecules therapies,” commented Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec. “It is a first-in-class approach with tremendous potential in combination with marketed checkpoint inhibitors but also as standalone therapy. The field of immuno-oncology will continue to evolve and at Evotec we will continue to invest in this area.”

The alliance, set up in 2015, was aimed at supporting the long-term pipeline building for the companies. Under the terms of the agreement, all three companies work together to identify small molecule leads and targets for next-generation therapies in immune-oncology, which may complement the pre-clinical and clinical profiles of leading checkpoint inhibitors.