Evotec AG has entered into a multi-year integrated drug discovery alliance with Genentech Inc, a wholly-owned member of the Roche Group, to discover novel small molecule therapeutics.

Evotec will apply its integrated and innovative drug discovery platform in combination with its extensive disease biology expertise against targets nominated by Genentech. This will include assay development and high throughput screening, medicinal chemistry and structural biology. The aim of the collaboration is to deliver high quality leads and development candidates to support Genentech's research efforts.

Further commercial details were not released.

Dr Werner Lanthaler, chief executive officer of Evotec, commented, "We are proud that Genentech, one of the premier biopharmaceutical companies worldwide, has selected Evotec's scientists and innovative drug discovery platform to support their research efforts. We look forward to working closely with Genentech's scientists and achieving success together."