Evotec Achieves Major Milestones in Molecular Glue Degrader Collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, Unlocks $75 Million in Payments

Evotec Achieves Major Milestones in Molecular Glue Degrader Collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, Unlocks $75 Million in Payments

(IN BRIEF) Evotec SE has reached key milestones in its molecular glue degrader collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb, earning $75 million in performance- and program-based payments. The partnership, built on Evotec’s AI-driven drug discovery platforms and BMS’s CELMoD™ technology, continues to yield a robust pipeline of targeted protein degraders for cancer and other unmet medical needs. These achievements further position Evotec as a frontrunner in next-generation therapeutic discovery.

(PRESS RELEASE) HAMBURG, 25-Apr-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — Evotec SE has announced a significant expansion in its molecular glue degrader pipeline through its strategic collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb. This progress has triggered milestone payments totaling $75 million to Evotec, reflecting both performance-based and program-based achievements.

Originally launched in 2018 and expanded in 2022, the collaboration leverages Evotec’s advanced PanOmics screening platforms, AI-powered drug discovery, and Bristol Myers Squibb’s leading cereblon E3 ligase modulator (CELMoD™) library to identify novel molecular glue degraders targeting critical unmet needs, primarily in oncology.

The newly attained milestones underscore the partnership’s continued momentum and success in systematically advancing a portfolio of high-potential programs. These degraders, which selectively induce the destruction of disease-driving proteins, are increasingly viewed as a transformative modality in drug discovery.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, stated: “This achievement marks another strong step forward in our strategic partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb. The continued expansion of our joint pipeline validates the potential of our industrialized PanOmics-based approach. Our growing collection of molecular glue degraders targeting previously intractable proteins holds the promise of delivering multiple first-in-class therapeutics. We are excited by the progress and confident in our trajectory.”

This collaboration continues to deliver novel and differentiated assets with the potential to significantly reshape therapeutic options for patients with limited or no treatment alternatives.

About molecular glue degraders
Conventional small molecule therapeutics work via a drug-induced interference with a protein activity. This limitation to agonistic or antagonistic functions renders about 90% of proteins “undruggable”. Also, conventional small molecules only work while they are actively binding to the receptor, which typically requires a treatment regimen consisting of one or even several carefully dosed medications every day.

Molecular glue degraders are compounds that induce interactions between an E3 ubiquitin ligase and a molecular target. The induced interaction results in ubiquitination and subsequent degradation of the recruited protein. Through this mechanism of action molecular glues are not restricted to the agonistic/antagonistic features of a protein, thus massively expanding the range of the druggable proteome. Also, the molecular glue itself is not degraded in the process and can trigger the degradation process several times over, thus leading to longer-lasting therapeutic effects.

About Evotec’s strategic collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb in molecular glues
In 2018, Evotec entered a long-term strategic drug discovery and development collaboration in the field of molecular glues with Celgene, now Bristol Myers Squibb. Bristol Myers Squibb is a leader in this field based on its unique library of cereblon E3 ligase modulators (CELMoDs™). The aim of this strategic alliance is to discover and develop a leading pipeline of molecular glue degraders for a range of therapeutic indications leveraging all of Evotec’s proprietary PanOmics and PanHunter platforms as well as AI/ML-based drug discovery and development capabilities.

Evotec applies high-end proteomics and transcriptomics at industrial scale to profile and select promising drug candidates based on comprehensive cell biological profiles. Evotec’s leading PanOmics screening capabilities are delivering unmatched throughput. The selection of the most promising candidates for drug development is facilitated by Evotec’s PanOmics data analysis platform PanHunter. PanHunter supports the integration and analysis of these data sets and thereby enables the selection of the most promising CELMoDs™ for further progression into lead optimization.

Evotec announced in May of 2022 that the Company has further extended and expanded its collaboration with Bristol Myers Squibb for another 8 years as the initial collaboration proved to be highly productive in generating a promising pipeline of molecular glue degraders.

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SOURCE: Evotec