Evotec and Harvard University have entered into research collaboration to develop new class of antibacterials.
The new anti-bacterial agents will be based on a highly validated target family involved in bacterial cell wall biosynthesis.
Evotec CEO Dr Werner Lanthaler said, "The lack of new antibacterials has been broadly recognised as a major unmet medical need as antibiotics pipelines are drying up while resistance against existing drugs is on the rise."
The collaboration will focus on identifying and optimizing small molecule inhibitors of bacterial cell wall synthesis, based on enabling technologies and chemical starting points licensed from Harvard.
Evotec will leverage chemical starting points, biological and structure-guided techniques allied with medicinal chemistry expertise to target peptidoglycan biosynthesis (PGB).
The resulting assets will be commercialized by Evotec.
Harvard's office of technology development business development director Dr Vivian Berlin said, "Target PGB builds on research at Harvard on bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, which is at the perfect stage of development to partner with Evotec. Our goal in collaborating with Evotec is to accelerate the research and advance the project toward the clinic."
