NEW YORK — Evotec said Thursday that it has partnered with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), its private subsidiary Inserm Transfert, and Lille University Hospital to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers for obesity and other metabolic diseases.
Under the terms of the deal, Lille University Hospital will provide samples and associated clinical data from a biobank it has built as part of an ongoing longitudinal study into obesity and its comorbidities. The project includes more than 8,000 severely obese people who are being assessed after bariatric surgery-induced weight loss. Evotec will support the recruitment of an additional 200 individuals within the next two years.
Evotec will analyze the samples using its PanOmics platform to generate transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data that can provide insights into the etiology of metabolic diseases such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. These data will feed into Evotec's proprietary translational molecular patient data platform, called E.MPD, and will be available to all collaborators to identify and validate key mechanisms of metabolic disease.
Financial and other terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.
"This collaboration will advance our understanding of obesity and associated metabolic diseases through the identification of key molecular mechanisms and new therapeutic targets," Noémie Pellegrin, director of industry partnerships and entrepreneurship at Inserm Transfert, said in a statement.
In late 2023, Evotec began working with Charité University Hospital Berlin to generate molecular data on a group of rare autoimmune conditions known as ANCA-associated vasculitis that will be integrated into E.MPD. The Hamburg, Germany-based company forged a similar relationship with Hannover Medical School in 2022 focused on Sjögren's syndrome and systemic lupus erythematosus.