€30m for Evotec cancer spin-out

As with the establishment of Topas Therapeutics in 2016, Hamburg-based Evotec is once more pooling various early-stage developmental projects and spinning them out into a separate company. Breakpoint Therapeutics will focus on the development of Evotec’s portfolio in the field of DNA damage response (DDR) – an approach that a number of other companies, such as Artios Pharma in the UK, are also pursuing. The EUR 30 million financing comes from life-science investment company Medicxi, Taiho Pharmaceuticals capital arm Taiho Ventures, and Evotec itself.

Breakpoint Therapeutics will advance multiple drug discovery programmes with the hopes of delivering the first IND-ready drug in 2022. The candidates under development are expected to have broad therapeutic applicability in various types of cancer. Breakpoint’s mission, according to Evotec, is to develop first and best-in-class oncology drugs that interfere with DNA repair and replication stress pathways to facilitate the cure of therapy-resistant cancers.

“Drugs that modulate DNA damage responses hold great promise for many cancer patients that don’t respond to currently existing treatments and are indeed among the most exciting new approaches to improve the success of cancer therapy,” commented Daniel Speidel, Managing Director of Breakpoint Therapeutics. “Given that so many people still die of cancer, it is absolutely vital that we turn relevant scientific concepts into new effective drugs. This is what Breakpoint Therapeutics is all about.”

“This is a ground-breaking field and we’re confident that our capital efficient, asset-centric approach will enable Breakpoint Therapeutics to rapidly develop differentiated medicines for the global patient population,” added Jon Edwards, Partner at Medicxi.