Evotech screens cancer candidates for Dewpoint Therapeutics

With this partnership, the Hamburg-based screening specialists have landed a really big deal Dewpint Therapeutics, the just four-year-old spin-off from Tony Hyman (MPI for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Dresden) and Richard Young from Whitehead Institute (Boston), has already raised US$137m with a completely new drug concept: it is looking for modulators of so-called molecular condensates. More specifically, this involves transcription activator domains that control the expression of hundreds of genes at phase boundaries by binding to transcription regulators. With its modulators, Dewpoint aims to influence the condensates so that they no longer show a disease-inducing transcription profile but a healthy pattern.

As part of the partnership, Evotec will use its INDIGO platform to optimise cancer candidates in Dewpoint's oncology pipeline of condensate modifying therapeutics (c-mods) preclinically up to IND stage. The partnership allows Dewpoint to mitigate the development risk of first-in-class candidates for clinical trials and secures undisclosed milestone payments and royalties for Evotec.

Biomolecular condensates are membraneless organelles that form dynamically in the cell by phase separation and lead to localised concentration of molecules that control biological processes. Dysregulation of biomolecular condensates is observed in many diseases, including cancer, diabetes and neurological diseases. Condensate-modifying drugs ("c-mods") promise to be able to treat previously untargetable diseases.