Evotec AG has announced that it has entered into a research collaboration with Immuneering Corporation, a worldwide leader in data-driven drug discovery, to discover novel small molecules for rare hereditary metabolic diseases.

The research collaboration brings together Evotec's leading induced pluripotent stem cell ("iPSC") platform and broad drug discovery capabilities with Immuneering's unique Artificial Intelligence-driven drug discovery platform to accelerate ligand identification for novel targets. As part of the collaboration, Evotec will use Immuneering's proprietary computational drug discovery platform Fluency to analyse public and proprietary data to advance identification of novel drug candidates that can ultimately lead to new medicines for rare hereditary metabolic diseases.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, said: "We are very excited to collaborate with Immuneering on its unique AI-driven approach to ligand identification. This is a significant opportunity to develop novel drugs targeting disorders of lysosomes that drive different clinical presentations in many rare genetic metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases with high unmet medical need. We look forward to exploring the powerful combination of these technologies and enhancing our drug discovery capabilities in our core areas of focus."

Dr Greg Koytiger, SVP and Head of AI for Immuneering, said: "We are thrilled to combine Evotec's industry-leading iPSC platform with our AI platform, Fluency, to rapidly identify and functionally profile novel small molecule drugs for rare hereditary metabolic diseases. This not only accelerates the drug discovery process, but opens up new targets that are understudied or difficult to drug. Evotec's in-depth knowledge of targets of interest and their leading iPSC platform make them an ideal partner to transform in silico hits into breakthrough therapies. We look forward to integrating best in class experimental and computational approaches to break new ground together for the benefit of these patients."

No financial details of the alliance were disclosed.