Evotec and Variant Bio have entered a partnership to develop new treatments for fibrotic diseases. This collaboration combines Variant Bio's genomic discovery expertise and VB-Inference platform with Evotec's antifibrotic drug discovery data and end-to-end R&D platform to identify small molecules that target a key fibrotic pathway and to advance them to the stage of a clinical development candidate. The deal also offers an opportunity to evaluate nephrology targets using Evotec's molecular patient database.

Under the partnership, Evotec will receive research funding and could receive milestone payments and/or royalties (amounts undisclosed), depending on the program's success. This deal allows Variant Bio to reduce early drug development costs in return for a share of potential future returns.

Variant Bio is a biotechnology company specializing in developing therapies by studying human genetics. Its pipeline includes multiple programs at several stages focusing on therapeutic areas such as inflammation-immunology, fibrosis, and kidney diseases.