Alzheimer’s Disease Research Alliance Reaches Key Milestone
Evotec AG has reached an important milestone concerning its TargetAD partnership with Janssen Pharmaceuticals for the transition of a product into further drug discovery process. Even though the announcement was made this year, the milestone was reached in 2015.
Evotec’s TargetAD database is a customized system to provide unique information on the connection between molecular and cellular changes in brain tissue with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression. The database was developed during a multiyear research program, applying cellular, histological, and living tissue target validation procedures, providing a strong platform for comprehensive and systematic target identification and validation, as well as compound discovery programs.
According to the agreement established in 2013, Evotec and Janssen are committed to collaborate in the development of novel drugs for AD, and Johnson & Johnson Innovation facilitates the collaboration.
Janssen is currently funding target drug discovery research by combining defined research payments with milestones related to progress. The company reserves the right to internalize selected targets and therapeutic candidates to move them into pre-clinical and clinical development.
Evotec AG is a worldwide-operating company focused on fast-progressing innovative product approaches, with global pharmaceuticals and biotech companies, scholars, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists in its group. Previous collaborations include Roche, in Alzheimer’s disease research, or Janssen Pharma, in the field of depression.
“Despite the significant challenges in identifying and prosecuting novel targets in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, our collaboration with Janssen continues to thrive, as documented by this milestone,” Evotec’s chief scientific officer, Dr. Cord Dohrmann, said in a press release. “On the basis of an ever-improving platform and an excellent team that is seamlessly integrated across both companies, we are confident that further progress will follow in 2016.”
Austin-based Alzheimer’s Association Capital of Texas Chapter (known as Alzheimer’s Texas) announced that the organization has separated from the national organization, based in Chicago.
The organization, a leader in Alzheimer’s care, education, and support in Central Texas, and the state’s preeminent force for new funding for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia research, says the decision was made so that Alzheimer’s Texas will be able to keep funds raised in Central Texas within the region.
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