Evotec AG and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals Inc. (P&GP), have announced that they have entered into agreements whereby Evotec will provide pharmaceutical discovery and chemical development services to P&GP.

Under the terms of the agreements, P&GP will access a wide range of discovery and preclinical expertise offered by Evotec, ranging from assay development, screening, medicinal and computational chemistry to scale-up and pharmaceutical manufacture.

A relationship between Evotec and P&GP started at the end of 2004 with a screening programme for a P&GP therapeutic target. This work was successfully completed, and subsequently the work has been expanded to include additional targets, and the companies have signed additional agreements for medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical development scale-up services.

Dr Mark Ashton, Executive Vice President Business Development Services at Evotec, said: "We are delighted that P&GP has chosen Evotec to provide these services. This is a broad and truly integrated relationship that involves many disciplines of pharmaceutical discovery. Based on an outstanding relationship, our highly motivated team is confident that we can add substantial value to P&GP's research projects."

"Adding flexible and highly competent R&D capacity is an important element in our corporate strategy. Evotec's capabilities and track record in each of the research disciplines, their state-of-the-art proprietary technologies and the scale of their operations make us believe that Evotec is an ideal provider of services for us in pharmaceutical research," said Dr Joseph Gardner, Director Research & Development Chemistry and Discovery Technologies at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. "Their proven performance together with the strong cultural fit between both research teams is a great basis for a productive collaboration."