https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180530006611/en/

HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2018--Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) announced today the formation of the LAB591 academic BRIDGE with Arix Bioscience plc ("Arix", London Stock Exchange: ARIX ) the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center ("Fred Hutch").

LAB591 aims to accelerate research discoveries at Fred Hutch and leverage these discoveries to form new companies focused on cancer and infectious disease drug development. Evotec, Arix and Fred Hutch plan to jointly select promising LAB591 research projects from the Fred Hutch labs. After developing a research validation plan, Evotec will conduct research in collaboration with the Fred Hutch faculty which will be seed funded by Arix. Once completed, and subject to the results, Evotec and Arix have a pre-agreed option to form a new company. For Evotec, the formation of LAB591 represents execution on the BRIDGE model under EVT Innovate, which is met with a high level of interest by academics, investors and biopharma companies.