Evotec signed a potentially €60 million (about $75 million) 10-year contract with NIH to operate the latter’s Small Molecule Repository. The contract will effectively continue to provide services started under a previous contract to acquire, store, maintain, and distribute the current library collection to support NIH-supported screening centers carrying out high-throughput screening for probe and drug discovery. As part of its intent to expand and support translational science further, the resource will now be made available to specific outside collaborators in addition to the NIH screening programs.

“We are delighted NIH has elected to award Evotec this long-term contract, which further validates our entry into compound management through our acquisition of Compound Focus in June 2011,” states Mario Polywka, Ph.D., Evotec COO.”This long-term contract will be managed through our San Francisco subsidiary, however we are also currently developing options to expand our compound-management capabilities into the U.S. east coast and also into Europe.”

The NIH Small Molecular Repository was established in 2004 as part of the Molecular Libraries Program. Its aims are to identify, acquire, maintain, and distribute a library of chemically diverse compounds with both known and unknown activities, for use in high-throughput screening, as the basis for the development of research products and therapeutic leads.

Evotec bought BioFocus’ San Francisco-based compound management business Compound Focus in June 2011 for €10.25 million up front. The acquired firm specializes in automated storage and custom design solutions for small molecule drugs. At the time Evotec said the buyout would enhance its early drug discovery capabilities and provide critical mass to its existing compound-management capabilities. 

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