A. History and development of the company.
We were incorporated on December 8, 1993, as a company with limited liability (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung) under the laws of Germany under the name EVOTEC BioSystems GmbH, formerly registered with the commercial register (Handelsregister) of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Hamburg, Germany, under the number HRB 54731. On August 7, 1998, we were converted into a German stock corporation (Aktiengesellschaft) under the laws of Germany under the name EVOTEC BioSystems Aktiengesellschaft, formerly registered with the commercial register (Handelsregister) of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Hamburg, Germany, under the number HRB 68223. On February 28, 2002, we changed our name to Evotec OAI AG, and on June 8, 2005, we changed our name to Evotec AG. On March 29, 2019, we converted into a European stock corporation (Societas Europaea, or SE) under the laws of Germany and the EU called Evotec SE, registered with the commercial register (Handelsregister) of the local court (Amtsgericht) of Hamburg, Germany, under the number HRB 156381.
Since November 10, 1999, we have been listed on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “EVT” and under the ISIN DE0005664809. Our shares are listed under the Segment Prime Standard.
On November 3, 2021, our registration statement on Form F-1 (File No. 333-260143), as amended, was declared effective by the SEC for our initial public offering of our ADSs, each representing one-half of one ordinary share, no par value per share, pursuant to which we offered and sold a total of 22,995,000 of our ADSs, at a public offering price of $21.75 per share.
Our principal executive offices are located at Essener Bogen 7, Hamburg, Germany. Our telephone number is +49 40 560 81-0. Our website address is http://www.evotec.com. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this annual report. We have included our website address as an inactive textual reference only.
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Our agent for service of process in the United States is Evotec (US) Inc., 303B College Road East Princeton, NJ 08540 Tel: (732) 329-2355.
B. Business overview.
At Evotec, we envision drug discovery, preclinical development, and manufacturing as a seamless continuum. Our ambition is to lead the way by combining comprehensive disease understanding at the molecular level with cutting-edge technologies, transforming this knowledge into precise, life-changing medicines through collaborative partnerships. We aim to reshape the future of healthcare by providing flexible access for our partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to our platform across the continuum of discovery, development and manufacturing.
As of December 31, 2025, our workforce included 3,682 scientific experts across a broad range of disciplines along the R&D value chain in a wide area of disease areas, in which we have developed substantial expertise in underlying biology, molecular mechanisms, and therapeutic targets over the years. Our broad range of disease area expertise covers oncology, central nervous system (“CNS”) disorders, cardiovascular-renal (“CVRM”) disorders, immune & inflammatory (“I&I”) and infectious diseases, other areas of expertise cover fibrotic and respiratory diseases, women’s health, rare diseases, and animal health.
Our new strategy tightens the focus on technology and science leadership, specifically in AI-driven innovation, molecular glue degraders, and targeted protein degradation, aiming to maximize impact in high-value segments. Our proprietary technologies and platforms, such as proprietary molecular patient databases, induced pluripotent stem-cell based disease modelling, high performance Omics technologies and comprehensive fully integrated platforms for drug screening, profiling and development as well as manufacturing, set Evotec apart from competitors. We believe that we differentiate ourselves from our competition because we combine industry-leading technology, fully integrated drug discovery and development platforms with these cutting-edge next generation platforms across a spectrum of modalities. By sharing access to these platforms, we build customized, results-focused partnerships which can be based on standalone and/or integrated fee-for-service relationships with the goal of advancing our partners’ projects in the most cost-effective and timely manner to deliver drug candidates with the highest probability of success during clinical development and in the market. Furthermore, we also build strategic partnerships where we co-create pipelines with our partners based proprietary assets, targets or technology platforms. The ultimate goal is to align patients’ needs with the industry’s demand for efficient R&D.
Our network of partners ranges from leading pharmaceutical companies, small and large biotechnology companies, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists as well as mission-driven foundations and not-for-profit organizations.
Our offering covers all areas of preclinical R&D from Discovery Services to Development & Manufacturing Services as well as Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion (“ADME”)-Tox Solutions. Moreover, we cover the entire value chain of discovery, process development and manufacturing expertise in the field of biologics, operated by JEB. By sharing access to these platforms, we form results-driven partnerships to co-create potential drugs and IP by leveraging our assets, targets, and propriety technology platforms together with our partners for co-development or new co-creation of therapeutics.
AI and Machine Learning (“ML”) expertise and capabilities such as deep learning and computational knowledge integration is put into use where needed and effective along the entire value chain. Our platforms are specifically designed to deliver differentiated results by integrating into established R&D capabilities and ultimately enabling the discovery of next generation, highly differentiated precision medicines.
For the near future, a substantial majority of revenues (2025: 79%, 2024: 94%) generated from the offerings to our partners will be based on “fee-for-service” agreements or Full-time equivalent (“FTE”) -based arrangements. Subject to the degree of integration of partnerships and multi-step research campaigns, we may also benefit from success-based payments, so-called milestone payments. If alliances are built based on co-development of therapeutics with Evotec IP involved, we may also benefit in future from substantial milestone and royalty payments in addition to the compensation of research work via FTE rates. In the years ended December 31, 2024, and 2025, 0.4% and 1.2%, respectively, of our total group revenues from third parties were derived from milestone payments. There was no mentionable contribution of royalties at this stage. Revenues generated from commercial manufacturing biologics should become a relevant contributor to overall growth of group revenues by 2030.
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The chart below provides an overview on active projects/therapeutics, which we co-develop with partners (“Partnered Pipeline”) or which could be subject to co-development alliances in the future (“Unpartnered Pipeline”). As of December 31, 2025, the portfolio of projects in clinical trials composed of two projects in Phase II and five projects in Phase I.
The majority of drug candidates in the pipeline were discovered in collaborations between Evotec and their partners. Dependent on the partnership contract, Evotec is eligible to receive royalty or milestone payments for those candidates. As of December 2025, 62 active projects were partnered, excluding 21 projects with royalties only. An additional 31 projects are eligible for partnering in the future. To improve our risk / return profile in the future, we will focus on co-developed projects and will only selectively pursue independent in-house discovery and development of proprietary assets as proof-of-concept of our platforms, The chart above does not contain candidates that are being discovered and developed by partners in whom we have solely an equity stake. For these projects we have no right to benefit from milestone or royalty payments and there is no direct impact on our P&L. However, we could benefit from value accretion related to the progress of these assets.
At the start of 2025, we operated 15 sites, including a network of five manufacturing facilities, with capacities for continuous manufacturing of biologics in the United States, in Redmond (Washington), the “J.POD” facility. Our second Toulouse site, which was customized and dedicated entirely to Sandoz, was sold to Sandoz AG with the final closing on December 5, 2025. Our API manufacturing capabilities are in Europe in Abingdon, UK, and Verona, Italy. We also have a GMP manufacturing site for ATMP (“Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product”) in Medolla, Italy. In the first half of 2024, we announced a reset of priorities resulting in a stronger focus on profitable growth. At the end of February 2025, as part of our footprint optimization plan announced in 2024, we closed the Cologne site. At the end of 2025 our local footprint represents 14 sites. Certain of our operations are carried out under GMP and GLP regulations, which are certified and periodically audited by regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, MHRA, AIFA, and our partners.
Reporting segments
Evotec reports the results of its work and collaborations with third parties through two reporting segments:
Just – Evotec Biologics
Just – Evotec Biologics is our advanced approach to discovering, optimizing, developing and manufacturing bio-therapeutics. JEB provides services in the areas of antibody molecular optimization, product and process design, single-use disposable, perfusion-based continuous bioprocessing platforms, covering both early stage as well as commercial biomanufacturing. This differentiated offering is available to our partners on a fee-for-service and/or full-time equivalent (“FTE”)-rates-based model as well as through arrangements that involve milestones and royalties. Revenue generated by the Just – Evotec Biologics brand is included within the Just – Evotec Biologics segment.
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The transaction with Sandoz, closed in early December 2025, marks a strategic milestone for Evotec in transitioning to an asset-lighter business model that requires less capital expenditure. With the sale of the JEB Toulouse site Evotec steps back from owning large‑scale biologics manufacturing and moving toward a lighter, partnership‑focused model. The deal strengthens Evotec’s liquidity (upfront cash payment of USD 350 m) while keeping access to long‑term revenue through technology licenses, milestones, and royalties (Evotec is eligible for over USD 300 m in future developments as well as royalties on a biosimilar portfolio targeting >USD 90 billion in originator sales). This shift in strategy allows Evotec to focus more on its core R&D platforms and continuous manufacturing expertise, without carrying the heavy investment burden of building out further biologics production facilities. With the closing of the transaction, JEB will continue to serve its customers in the USA and Europe with capacity for molecular design, upstream, downstream, analytical and formulation development as well as first-in-human to commercial biologics GMP manufacturing.
JEB accounted for 33% of our revenues from third parties in the twelve months ended December 31, 2025, and 23% and 14% for the years ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively
Discovery & Preclinical Development
As a result of the strategic review process, the segment formerly known as Shared R&D was renamed Discovery & Preclinical Development (“D&PD”) in April 2025, to illustrate a shift in strategic focus from the earlier expansion‑driven approach towards a more focused and profitability‑oriented model. The Company now concentrates on high‑growth, high‑value segments, simplifies its business structure, and emphasizes operational excellence towards higher-margin activities, complexity reduction, operational streamlining, and a “asset-lighter” operational model. D&PD primarily includes drug discovery and preclinical development services and solutions, starting with sourcing novel treatment ideas derived from patient data and continues with target validation and lead optimization. In the subsequent development phase, selected candidates can seamlessly transition to IND application. Revenue generated through the Evotec or Cyprotex brands is included within the Discovery & Preclinical Development segment, including standard fee-for-service arrangements, larger collaboration arrangements as well as all pipeline assets. Evotec believes its Discovery & Preclinical Development partnership model is unique and allows the Company to balance and diversify the risks associated with drug discovery.
D&PD accounted for 67% of our revenues from third parties in the year ended December 31, 2025, and 77% and 86% for the years ended December 31, 2024, and 2023, respectively.
D&PD business model
As an external innovation partner to the life science industry, we provide stand-alone services or integrated offerings, characterized by multi-year, multi-stage drug discovery and development campaigns using our industrialized and comprehensive infrastructure. Strategic pipeline building, leading to co-ownership in drug products, is achieved if proprietary technologies and intellectual property are leveraged. The “fee-for-service model” is the main source of revenues today. It usually applies where no IP of Evotec is involved. We grant partners access to our own IP and technology platforms only in return for milestone payments or license payments and future royalties in case of commercial success of jointly developed pipeline assets. These payments are added to FTE-rate based payments for the work required to achieve scientific progress. In the years ended December 31, 2025, and 2024, 1.2% and 0.4%, respectively, of our total group revenues from third parties were derived from milestone payments. There was no significant contribution of license payments or royalties at this stage.
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The Evotec’s Group Collective Competitive Strengths
Based on many technological advances and new biological insights, the opportunity to change the odds and improve the success rates in drug discovery has been made more achievable. In our view, our set-up as a fully integrated drug discovery and development innovation hub makes us well-positioned to achieve superior results. We believe we have built the most agile platform in the industry, and we distinguish ourselves from our competition through our competitive strengths, as described below:
● Our fully integrated innovation platform has comprehensive breadth and depth: Our platform covers the full discovery, preclinical and early clinical development value chain, delivered in a highly integrated, cross-functional manner. This platform is comprehensive and, in its breadth, and depth provides unique offerings that resonates strongly with our partners because we offer a unique combination of disease area expertise, full-suite technology, and predictive power across most modalities. Our competitors in the market for external drug discovery offer services or solutions with a limited scope focusing on discrete steps within the value chain. In contrast, our platform integrates disruptive, proprietary technologies within a holistic product suite to enable the development of potentially first and best-in-class therapeutics. Based on our industry knowledge and the public disclosure of other industry participants, we believe that we are the only company among our identified competitors that offers chemistry, biology, transcriptomics, proteomics and iPSC-based disease modeling with multi-modality expertise across small molecules, biologics, and cell therapies, as well as related manufacturing capabilities.
● Our platforms are designed to optimally support precision drug discovery: The integration of precision and efficiency is in our view the solution to the industry’s challenge of constantly declining returns on R&D investments. Over the last 25 years, we have built an agile platform, designed to help improve returns from R&D. Our proprietary discovery and development platforms leverage data, operational efficiencies, and technological capabilities to drive rapid progress and successful outcomes in the early stages of the R&D process. We also apply ML and AI to our molecular patient databases as well as in vitro and in vivo models to generate and analyze data with the ambition to increase the likelihood of success in clinical trials and provide solutions to the challenge of constantly declining returns on R&D investments.
● Our patient-centric approach helps us benefit from the paradigm shift of precision medicine: We have built an advanced precision medicine platform that integrates molecular patient databases, our PanOmics platforms as well as our iPSC- based drug screening platform. We believe that the identification of disease-relevant molecular profiles in patients is fundamental for most precision medicine approaches, and we target the development of molecular patient databases in various disease areas. For example, our CKD database is derived from more than 10,000 CKD patient profiles and more than 10,000 controls and other disease areas. Overall, E.MPD consists of more than 20,000 patient profiles from several disease areas including metabolic & kidney diseases as well as inflammatory and immune-mediated diseases. We have also uniquely integrated our iPSC platform with other core technologies, which enables iPSC-based disease modelling and drug screening at an industrialized scale. We believe that patient-derived disease models are the new gold standard in profiling drugs at the preclinical stage of development, eventually leading to lower attrition rates during clinical trials. This helps us drive the paradigm shift toward individualized drug discovery and allows us to address diseases in a more precise manner tailored to molecular patient profiles.
● Our modality-agnostic set of solutions maximizes the potential of our integrated technology platform: Our multi-modality platform ranges across small molecules, biologics, RNA-targeting approaches and cell therapy. Our platforms are applicable to all these modalities and lead to a modality-agnostic pipeline spanning a broad range of disease areas. We leverage our industry-leading iPSC platform for the development of next-generation cell-based therapies as well as disease modeling and drug screening.
● Our wide array of high-quality partnerships results in a deep, diversified pipeline: We are a partner of choice for leading pharmaceutical companies, small and large biotechnology companies, start-ups, academic institutions, venture capitalists as well as foundations and mission-driven not-for-profit organizations. Due to our value proposition for partners, we can retain significant commercial upside with all our assets that are partnered in the form of royalties, milestones, or equity stakes. Our pipeline benefits from our highly productive research collaborations. The value upside created by our pipeline comes at a low capital intensity and at an attractive risk-reward profile as our partners typically carry the clinical development costs of our assets.
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● Our people and culture place scientific excellence at the heart of everything we do: We are led by a strong management team with extensive industry knowledge and experience. We foster a culture of scientific excellence and problem solving, demonstrated by the scientific expertise and passion of our 3,682 scientists who work for Evotec as of December 31, 2025. 60% of our employees holds at least one academic qualification, including a significant number with a Ph.D. or equivalent. We stay close to groundbreaking research through our numerous research collaborations with academic institutions such as the University of Oxford, the German Cancer Research Center, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins University, the Ospedale San Raffaele, or A*STAR and the National University of Singapore (“NUS”). Our people strategy focuses on attracting, growing, and retaining talent, developing our leaders to be great leaders, ensuring a fair and competitive reward system, and supporting our ONE Evotec culture. Our three core values that form the basis of our corporate culture are innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. These values are consistently lived internally amongst Evotec employees as well as externally with our partners (two of our critical stakeholder groups) and are essential to our business model.
Key Performance Metrics for our Fee-for-Service and FTE-based Business models
1) Share of Annual Repeat Business
We have demonstrated solid customer retention rates, as defined by the percentage of revenues from customers with whom we had a relationship within the prior year, above 90% in each of the last three years. We review our repeat business on a yearly basis. Repeat business was 90% in 2025, 94% in 2024 and 93% in 2023 respectively.
2) Customer Evolution and Contribution
The number of our customer alliances has expanded significantly in recent years, providing further validation of the services provided. The total number of customers in 2025 was 735, compared to 849 in 2024 and 838 in 2023, respectively. During 2025, we added 225 new customers compared to 292 in 2024 and 298 in 2023. The number of customer alliances that generate revenues of more than €1.0 million per year has decreased to 74 in 2025 or 10%, whereas in 2024, we had 109 customers or 13% and in 2023 102 or 12% of total customers.
3) Increased revenue share from top ten customers
Our customer and revenue bases have become more concentrated over the last three years. Our top ten customers’ contribution to total revenues amounted to 61% in 2025 versus 52% in 2024 and 47% in 2023. Bristol Myers Squibb (“BMS”) and Sandoz are the only customers which each individually accounted for more than 10% of group revenues.
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Our Growth Strategy
Evotec’s 2025 growth strategy represents a clear shift from its earlier expansion‑driven approach towards a more focused and profitability‑oriented model, with an emphasis on operational excellence. Our new growth strategy is guided by four mid-term levers of value creation:
1.Growth faster than the market by focusing on high‑value, high‑growth segments with strong margins
2.Our commitment to operational excellence
3. Our new strategy for our Just-Evotec Biologics business, focusing on better monetizing our technology and the strategic transition to an asset-lighter business model
4.Upside from development progress in our asset pipeline partnered with pharma and biotech companies.
On March 10, 2026 we announced ‘Horizon’, the next phase in our multi-stage transformation initiative. Horizon is advancing the multi‑stage transformation initiated with the Priority Reset in 2024 by implementing a strengthened operating model built on three strategic pillars: operations, science, and commercial execution. As part of this evolution, the company is streamlining its global footprint to 10 sites, creating a more focused operational structure and improving its long‑term cost position. In parallel, newly established Centers of Excellence consolidate critical expertise and innovation capabilities, reinforcing Horizon’s scientific leadership and sharpening its competitiveness in high‑value market segments. The commercial organization is being upgraded to drive faster execution, clearer accountability, and stronger customer engagement. Together, these measures establish an operating model designed for greater agility, resilience, and sustainable growth, positioning Horizon to deliver enhanced value creation. The structural initiatives are expected to generate approximately € 75 m in run‑rate savings by the end of 2027.
With regard to the Just – Evotec Biologics (“JEB”) segment, the sale of the JEB Toulouse site to Sandoz, closed in December 2025, marks a strategic milestone for Evotec in transitioning to a business model that requires less capital expenditure. With the sale of the JEB Toulouse site steps back from owning large‑scale biologics manufacturing and moving toward a lighter, partnership‑focused model. The deal strengthens Evotec’s liquidity (upfront cash payment of USD 350 m) while keeping access to long‑term revenue through technology licenses, milestones, and royalties (Evotec is eligible for over USD 300 m in future developments as well as royalties on a biosimilar portfolio targeting >USD 90 billion in originator sales). This shift in strategy allows Evotec to focus more on its core R&D platforms and continuous manufacturing expertise, without carrying the heavy investment burden of building out further biologics production facilities.
Our growth strategy for the D&PD segment focuses on building growth momentum through a tailored commercial model that strengthens our position in long‑term strategic collaborations while maximizing our platform’s full potential for targeted projects. Industrialization and automation ensure consistent, high‑quality results, whether for a single experiment or a multi‑year collaboration. Our standardized offerings prioritize speed, ease of business and industry‑leading quality standards. Integrated projects include additional services to accelerate results, offering access to our expert teams and consulting support. The “gold standard” of our services becomes the basis for strategic partnerships, providing clients with exclusive access to next‑generation technologies and therapeutic area expertise. As complexity and access to proprietary technologies increase, the share of value‑added revenue — such as milestones, licensing, and royalties — also rises in the event of a drug’s commercial success.
In contrast, Evotec’s former strategy prioritized broad expansion, heavy investment in new technologies and infrastructure, and a wide network of R&D partnerships. Growth was driven by scaling capabilities across multiple platforms, including significant capacity building in biologics manufacturing. Profitability played a secondary role, as the Company focused on long‑term pipeline participation and diversified scientific initiatives.
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Developments in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology markets - Increasing demand for CROs and CDMOs
The exceptional funding and development activity witnessed during the pandemic years has normalized, and early‑stage biotech financing has tightened considerably. The discovery and preclinical development market, in particular, has faced several challenging years in the aftermath of the pandemic. Overall, while global R&D growth has moderated compared to the extraordinary levels seen during COVID‑19, we expect the environment to be characterized by greater selectivity and capital discipline rather than a diminished appetite for innovation. Large pharmaceutical companies are maintaining disciplined portfolio reviews and cost‑optimization measures, limiting near‑term spending on external R&D and transactional research services. At the same time, strategic, long‑term collaborations — particularly in advanced modalities and platform technologies—remain a priority, though deal structures are increasingly milestone‑weighted.
The global preclinical Contract Research Organizations (“CRO”) market is poised for strong expansion, rising from an estimated USD 6.8 bn in 2025 to USD 12.2 bn by 2032, reflecting a CAGR of 8.8%, driven by the growing tendency of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to outsource preclinical research. This growth is supported by increasing investment in drug discovery and development, as well as the need for more specialized expertise during early‑stage research. Several trends are shaping the market’s development. Companies are increasingly adopting advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics to accelerate and optimize the drug discovery process. At the same time, the rise of personalized medicine and targeted therapies is boosting demand for highly specialized preclinical services. Growing collaboration between pharmaceutical firms and CROs is further enhancing innovation and improving the efficiency of drug development.
Expert assessments highlight strong momentum in the market, driven by outsourcing, technological innovation, and rising preclinical activity in fields such as oncology, metabolic disorders, and rare diseases. At the same time, the market faces challenges, including rising operational costs, talent shortages, and regulatory complexity across regions.
According to Precedence Research, the global pharmaceutical Contract Development and manufacturing organization (“CDMO”) market size is valued at USD 197.4 bn in 2025 and is predicted to increase from USD 211.0 bn in 2026 to approximately USD 392.7 bn by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2026 to 2035.
Partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and CDMOs have become increasingly important, as outsourcing manufacturing allows companies to focus on their core strengths while lowering production costs. The high expenses involved in drug development further encourage firms to seek cost‑efficient external support, and CDMOs provide the specialized capabilities needed to reduce these financial pressures.
The CDMO market is expanding as chronic diseases such as cancer increase the need for advanced and effective treatments. Growing demand for generics, personalized medicine, and greater R&D activity further strengthens the role of CDMOs in supporting drug development and manufacturing.
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D&PD Business model
As an external innovation partner to the life science industry, we provide stand-alone services or integrated offerings, characterized by multi-year, multi-stage drug discovery and development campaigns using our industrialized and comprehensive infrastructure. Strategic pipeline building, leading to co-ownership in drug products, is achieved if proprietary technologies and intellectual property are leveraged. The “fee-for-service model” is the main source of revenues today. It usually applies where no IP of Evotec is involved. We grant partners access to our own IP and technology platforms only in return for milestone payments or license payments and future royalties in case of commercial success of jointly developed pipeline assets. These payments are added to FTE-rate based payments for the work required to achieve scientific progress. In the years ended December 31, 2025, and 2024, 1.2% and 0.4%, respectively, of our total group revenues from third parties were derived from milestone payments. There was no significant contribution of license payments or royalties at this stage.
Benefits from our strategy to co-create pipelines include:
● Milestones and royalties-based revenue to secure and accelerate profitability.
● A risk-reduced development pathway for drugs given the ability to combine Evotec and partner R&D capabilities and expertise.
● Deepen our knowledge base of high-quality R&D capabilities.
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Striving for differentiation through technological and scientific leadership
Our new strategy tightens the focus on technology and science leadership, specifically in AI-driven innovation, molecular glue degraders, and targeted protein degradation, aiming to maximize impact in high-value segments. Our proprietary technologies and platforms, such as proprietary molecular patient databases, induced pluripotent stem-cell based disease modelling, high performance Omics technologies and comprehensive fully integrated platforms for drug screening, profiling and development as well as manufacturing, set Evotec apart from competitors. We believe that we differentiate ourselves from our competition because we combine industry-leading technology, fully integrated drug discovery and development platforms with these cutting-edge next generation platforms across a spectrum of modalities. By sharing access to these platforms, we build customized, results-focused partnerships which can be based on standalone and/or integrated fee-for-service relationships with the goal of advancing our partners’ projects in the most cost-effective and timely manner to deliver drug candidates with the highest probability of success during clinical development and in the market. Furthermore, we also build strategic partnerships where we co-create pipelines with our partners based proprietary assets, targets or technology platforms. The ultimate goal is to align patients’ needs with the industry’s demand for efficient R&D.
Our network of partners ranges from leading pharmaceutical companies, small and large biotechnology companies, academic institutions, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists as well as mission-driven foundations and not-for-profit organizations.
Evotec’s offering covers all areas of preclinical R&D from Discovery Services to Development & Manufacturing Services as well as Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion (“ADME”)-Tox Solutions. Moreover, we cover the entire value chain of discovery, process development and manufacturing expertise in the field of biologics, operated by JEB. By sharing access to these platforms, we form results-driven partnerships to co-create potential drugs and intellectual property by leveraging our assets, targets and propriety technology platforms together with our partners for co-development or new co-creation of therapeutics.
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and Machine Learning (“ML”) expertise and capabilities such as deep learning and computational knowledge integration are used, where effective, along the entire value chain to complement the expertise of our scientists. Our platforms are specifically designed to deliver differentiated results by integrating into established R&D capabilities and ultimately enabling the discovery of next generation, highly differentiated precision medicines.
Our services across the continuum can be clustered in the four areas: Discovery Services, Development & Manufacturing Services, Cyprotex ADME-Tox Solutions and Just – Evotec Biologics, where the latter represents a separate reporting segment besides D&PD, which covers the first three areas. Within our service clusters, we have developed specific areas of expertise and proprietary platforms that are combined with established R&D capabilities designed to offer holistic drug discovery and development solutions.
The composition of revenues and profitability depends on the composition of services provided, the nature of the contract with our partners, the ownership of the intellectual property (i.e. the degree of integration of proprietary technologies and platforms), the stage of the project and our right to generate revenue from development success. We believe our partnership model is unique and allows us to balance and diversify the risks associated with drug discovery.
Our services across the continuum can be clustered in the four areas: Discovery Services, Development & Manufacturing Services, Cyprotex ADME-Tox Solutions, and JEB, where the latter represents a separate reporting segment besides D&PD, which covers the first three areas. Within our service clusters, we have developed specific areas of expertise and proprietary platforms that are combined with established R&D capabilities designed to offer holistic drug discovery and development solutions.
The composition of revenues and profitability depends on the composition of services provided, the nature of the contract with our partners, the ownership of the IP (i.e. the degree of integration of proprietary technologies and platforms), the stage of the project and our right to generate revenue from development success. We believe our partnership model is unique and allows us to balance and diversify the risks associated with drug discovery.
Discovery Services
Our comprehensive toolbox combines established R&D capabilities and our industrialized PanOmics approach towards molecular disease understanding and iPSC disease modeling platform.
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Our integrated Drug Discovery toolbox includes (selection):
● Target ID & Validation
● Hit Identification
● Structural Biology
● Molecular Design & MedChem
● In-vitro Biology
● In-vivo Pharmacology
● Biomarkers
● Bioreagents & Cellular Sciences
● Early Formulation
● Sample Management
● In silico and AI/ML platforms
● Proprietary Technology platforms: PanOmics, Evotec’s Molecular Patient Databases (“E.MPD”), iPSC disease modelling and therapies
- PanOmics - PanOmics, our multi-omics supported drug discovery platform, combines industrialized Omics data generation and AI/ML supported Omics data analysis. Built on the foundation of proprietary molecular patient data, the platform fundamentally improves the understanding of disease processes, disease modeling in vitro and in vivo, the identification of novel high value targets as well as biomarker discovery and patient selection.
The technologies in use cover the whole range of biomolecules from genes to protein to metabolites. While we are using standard commercially available processes for genomics, we have invested massively in high-throughput and high-resolution transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics methods. These methods allow us to study diseases processes on all molecular levels and yield a deeper understanding of the disease mechanisms and discovery of novel predictive biomarkers. We believe our proprietary multi-omics data generation platform, PanOmics, is industry-leading in terms of throughput sensitivity, robustness, and cost efficiency, in the fields of transcriptomic and proteomic analysis.
The results often lead to the stratification of sub-populations within a broader group of patients and eventually may lead to the development of personalized therapies. This change in paradigm has increased the need for new AI/ML-based platforms, tools, and methods to better understand, interpret, and translate the vast amounts of information and data that is being generated to broaden knowledge of the molecular biology, cell regulation and the pathogenesis of individual diseases. PanHunter, our integrated data analytics platform, makes the Company’s -omics data available in a user-friendly manner at the enterprise level. Users can freely interact with and combine data in a modular, app-based system where results are available immediately and can be interpreted or used as input for subsequent steps. This rapid feedback is a crucial feature distinguishing PanHunter from other similar tools.
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- E.MPD
● The drug discovery process starts with a fundamental understanding of molecular disease processes. We believe that gaining a better insight into the molecular level of disease processes is the only way to develop disease modifying or even curative therapies. Evotec has established unique and proprietary molecular patient databases in number of disease areas including cardiac diseases, acute & chronic kidney disease (“AKI” & “CKD”), metabolic diseases, immunology and inflammation (“I&I”), and neuronal diseases. Our most comprehensive molecular patient database has been built in CKD.
Utilizing the PanOmics data generation platforms, we conducted molecular profiling of patient tissues and samples in the database and thereby generated crucial molecular patient data required to drive precision medicine approaches in CKD. We have continuously expanded this database, which is based on data from almost 12,000 CKD patients. To our knowledge, this constitutes by far the largest CKD patient molecular database worldwide and now constitutes more than six hundred billion data points.
Based on the strength of our molecular CKD patient database, we have built four partnerships in kidney diseases in the last almost ten years with prominent pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer, Vifor (now “CSL Vifor”), Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly, and Chinook (now a Novartis company). Our collaborations are structured as multi-target agreements pursuant to which an undefined number of targets may be pursued.
While our molecular patient database in CKD is the most comprehensive set of data at this stage, we are growing several additional proprietary molecular patient databases in other disease areas (e.g., Metabolic and Cardiac diseases etc.) by adding samples from more patients. The opportunity to derive new targets and therapies in these disease areas is tremendous, and we aim to capitalize on these databases via additional strategic alliances.
- iPSC based disease modeling - The improved molecular understanding of disease processes and therefore of sub-populations of larger patient populations enables us to establish more disease relevant in vitro models especially using patient-derived disease models through iPSC technology. Combining our improved understanding of molecular disease processes in patients with iPSC-based patient derived disease models as well as high performance Omics profiling and AI/ML supported data analytics is a unique set up to seamlessly prosecute novel insights in disease biology into next-generation drug discovery programs.
● iPSC cell assays enable a more accurate modelling of diseases and therefore represent an alternative to animal models in profiling drug candidates at preclinical stages. Patient-derived iPSCs offer unprecedented opportunities for in vitro disease modelling and have unlocked new possibilities for the development of more efficacious and safer drugs. Since 2013, we have built an iPSC infrastructure that forms an integral part of our PanOmics-driven drug discovery platform and can be applied to a broad range of therapeutic areas. It was created with the key goal of developing more accurate and scalable models to investigate disease aetiology and to industrialize iPSC-based drug screening in terms of throughput, reproducibility and robustness in miniaturized 384-well format.
While iPSC disease models are traditionally utilized in two-dimensional monocultures, we are also investigating next generation multi lineage technologies, such as co-cultures and organoids, to attain greater physiological relevance. Our ’clinical-trial-in-a-dish’ approach allows testing of novel drug candidates on iPSC-derived models from a representative sample of human patients in a multiplexed fashion and has vast potential for multiple areas of drug discovery – from early stages of lead optimization to regulatory safety assessment.
Development & Manufacturing Services
We provide a one-stop solution for drug development and manufacturing, designed to work closely together with our partners to design and execute the best strategy for rapid entry into first-in-human (“FIH”) studies and further advancement into clinical supply for Phase II and Phase III studies.
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Integrated Development & Manufacturing Services include:
● INDiGO - Investigational New Drug (“IND”) Enabling Program - INDiGO is a fully integrated development program in which clinical-enabling drug substance, safety assessment, clinical drug product and regulatory activities are conducted at a single site and within a single contract, providing a fully integrated and optimally efficient plan for IND/clinical trial application (“CTA”) submission. All these activities are governed by a project team with decades of pharmaceutical experience and harmonized with our fully equipped regulatory support team providing a robust, streamlined development engine with multi-disciplinary coordination to accelerate drug candidates into the clinic. Instead of single services, we offer a solution designed to materially shorten the process of bringing a new drug candidate into the clinic.
● Fully integrated API capabilities - Our API capabilities encompass process chemistry, analytical, and manufacturing operations. In addition to offering integrated process R&D and analytical development services using state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and equipment, we also supply APIs for preclinical development, non-clinical use, clinical trials, and small-scale commercial supply. To ensure compliance with cGMP standards and to provide support for customer audits and regulatory inspections, we have an independent Quality Assurance unit that oversees all API activities. Our chemistry, analytical and manufacturing operations are co-located at facilities in Abingdon, UK, and Verona, Italy.
● iPSC based Cell Therapy - We have built a fully integrated end-to-end platform to discover, develop and manufacture off-the-shelf iPSC-based cell therapeutics. In addition, we conduct R&D to develop innovative proprietary product candidates to accelerate pipeline building with our partners. Our proprietary internal iPSC-based preclinical product candidate pipeline encompasses immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, as well as regenerative therapies targeting diabetes and retinal degeneration. Our platform integrates cutting-edge gene editing and targeting technologies, along with a GMP facility for manufacturing clinical development candidates located near Modena.
Cyprotex ADME-Tox Solutions
Cyprotex enables and enhances the prediction of human exposure, clinical efficacy and toxicological outcome of a drug or chemical. We can combine quality data from a comprehensive portfolio of in vitro assays with leading in silico technology and harness our extensive experience in the ADME-Tox field to add value, context and relevance to the data supplied to our partners. Cyprotex serves several different industries, including the pharmaceutical and biotech, personal care and cosmetics, household products, and the chemical and agrochemical industries.
The range of Cyprotex ADME-Tox Solutions encompasses:
● In vitro ADME and pharmacokinetic (“PK”) - Studying ADME of a compound can be used to estimate the plasma and tissue concentrations in the body (pharmacokinetics). There is a clear link between pharmacokinetics/tissue exposure and clinical efficacy and safety due to either on-target or off-target effects.
● Integrated and standalone bioanalysis – Evotec and its subsidiaries have a breadth of experience in bioanalysis for small molecules and bio-therapeutics of any size for non-clinical and clinical sample analysis. The scientific experience, capacity and application of the bioanalytical equipment provide a fast turnaround that will help to arrive at “go/no-go” decisions faster. Our bioanalysis service is part of both standalone services as well as fully integrated packages. We can offer both non-GLP and GLP bioanalytical services with validated methods appropriate for regulatory submissions.
● Toxicology - Significant expertise in the latest techniques such as high content imaging, microelectrode array, 3D cells and iPSC-derived models and transcriptomics to identify potential toxicity and understanding mechanisms of toxicity at an early stage in drug discovery. More human relevant cell-based models are being introduced in drug discovery to address this need. Evotec and its wholly owned subsidiary Cyprotex are among the leaders in this field.
● Physicochemical Profiling - Determining key physicochemical properties of compounds plays a pivotal role in supporting rational compound design by providing insight into the relationship between a molecule’s structure and its physical behavior within many areas in an organism, e.g. dissolution, absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, protein affinity, and toxicity.
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● Modelling & Simulation - Properly developed systems models can generate valuable additional information from data, enabling improved decision making, cost reduction and reduction in animal usage. Cyprotex performs innovative mathematical modeling and offers multiple modeling solutions, such as Pharmacokinetic Prediction using physiologically based pharmacokinetic (“PBPK”) models, ML & Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (“QSAR”) /Quantitative structure–property relationships (“QSPR”) modeling primarily performed by a proprietary system developed in-house, PK/pharmacodynamic (“PD”) modeling, as well as a suite of methods for integrating data from multiple in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo sources – whether ADME/PK, toxicity and/or efficacy.
JEB
JEB is our advanced approach to designing, discovering, optimizing, developing and manufacturing bio-therapeutics. The sale of the JEB Toulouse site to Sandoz closed in December 2025 marks a strategic milestone for Evotec in transitioning to a business model that requires less capital expenditure. With the sale of the JEB Toulouse site steps back from owning large‑scale biologics manufacturing and moving toward a lighter, partnership‑focused model. The deal strengthens Evotec’s liquidity while keeping access to long‑term revenue through technology licenses, milestones, and royalties. This shift in strategy allows Evotec to focus more on its core R&D platforms and continuous manufacturing expertise, without carrying the heavy investment burden of running a full biologics production facility. JEB will continue to offer all of its previous biologics CDMO services in the Seattle and Redmond sites, as well as licensing out its proprietary IP, including cell lines, media, expression vector system, as well as its full suite of end to end continuous manufacturing IP.
Evotec acquired Just Biotherapeutics (subsequently renamed Just – Evotec Biologics) in 2019, which represented our entry into the large and growing market for commercial biologics and expanded our multi-modality capabilities. The founding and original concept of JEB was to create an agile, flexible, and cost-effective method of biologics discovery, development, and manufacture to enable affordable global access to modern biologics therapies. This powerful, horizontally integrated end-to-end system is called J.DESIGN.
Our full suite of capabilities from Discovery to Commercial Supply of biologics includes:
● Antibody Discovery (J.HAL)
● Antibody Molecular Optimization and candidate selection services utilizing state-of-the-art in silico-based AI tools combined with biophysical and biochemical characterization (J.MD).
● Process and product design for highly efficient, high titer, flexible manufacturing (J.P3)
● Cell line and media development services
● Continuous and Semi-continuous biomanufacturing under GMP for clinical and commercial use
● Technology Partnerships
● Licensing of our proprietary J.CHO cell line, proprietary J.Media for perfusion cell culture and J.Train services (building of flexible biomanufacturing lines and facilities)
Because we utilize J.DESIGN, or select elements as noted above, throughout the entire drug discovery and development process of biology, by the time it reaches the manufacturing stage in any given program, we have thoughtfully assessed the risk of most scaling problems that may occur. As a result, we can deliver flexible, right-sized manufacturing with faster turnaround times and without sacrificing the quality of the products. In addition to being suitable for providing clinical materials for most indications, this paradigm can broaden the scope of disease areas for biologic drug candidates driven by significantly higher yields and lower costs. It will also accelerate the growth of biosimilars given cost advantages, and it makes orphan diseases more amenable to biologics despite small addressable populations. For the same reasons, smaller patient populations resulting from precision medicine-based patient stratification will also benefit.
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The J.POD is a late-stage clinical and commercial manufacturing facility. A J.POD stands for “Production on Demand” and can accelerate the development of highly productive processes that can be executed in relatively small unit operations and still make enough products to meet almost all commercial market needs in a single facility. These highly intensified processes reduce the size of unit operations to fit into relatively small, flexible “POD’s” or clean rooms, and become the core manufacturing space in a J.POD facility. Since the entire process train uses single-use technology, central and CapEx intense utilities like “clean in place” or “sterilize in place” systems are eliminated, as well as the large amount of stainless-steel piping and large stainless-steel vessels that must be precisely built and validated. In addition, POD’s, and the equipment they contain can be built and assembled while the plant is being constructed so that the time and complexity of validation are dramatically reduced.
Finally, instead of increasing the size of bioreactors and processing steps to expand capacity (as in traditional large-scale manufacturing facilities), additional bioreactors of the same size are essentially “cloned.” In essence, we “scale-out” in time (i.e. we are able to extend the culture duration in days) rather than “scale-up” and effectively reduce scale-up risks by manufacturing at the same scale from early clinical development through commercial manufacturing. Our processes are highly “intensified,” using continuous perfusion and connected downstream processing to make large amounts of high-quality drug substance with a relatively small bio processing footprint.
To enhance our manufacturing capabilities, in August 2021, we opened our first J.POD, a late-stage clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington, United States, in addition to our existing early stage facility also using J.POD technology in Seattle, Washington, United States. Because our J.POD Redmond facility contains clinical and commercial processes, both can be operated at the same scale to facilitate seamless transfer and eliminate scale-up risk. The site, which will be able to produce on a large enough scale to meet most of our commercial needs in a single facility and will mainly supply markets in North America.
As global demand for flexible biologics capacity and for more affordable access to medicines increases, we opened a second J.POD facility in Toulouse, France in September 2024. Since July 2024, the site has been dedicated entirely to Evotec’s customer Sandoz, following a series of agreements for the development, manufacturing and launch of select biosimilars. On July 30, 2025, Evotec SE and Sandoz AG signed a non-binding term sheet on a planned sale of Just – Evotec Biologics EU in Toulouse to Sandoz, followed by the signing of the contract in November 2025 and the final closing on December 5, 2025. The agreement includes approximately USD 350 m in cash for the JEB manufacturing site in Toulouse and upfront technology license fees for JEB’s complete technology stack. In addition, Evotec is eligible for license fees, and development revenues including success-based milestones adding up to more than USD 300 m over the coming years, replacing existing contractual commitments. The transaction with Sandoz is covering royalties on a portfolio of up to ten biosimilars in technical and early development and is accelerating the implementation of Evotec’s strategy through better monetization of its technology and transitioning to an asset-lighter business model. With the closing of the transaction, JEB will continue to serve its customers in the USA and Europe with capacity for molecular design, upstream, downstream, analytical and formulation development as well as FIH to commercial biologics GMP manufacturing. This transaction provides validation and underscores the strength of Evotec’s technology and capabilities in the rapidly expanding biologics segment, which could drive customer demand and support further future licensing opportunities for its proprietary end-to-end continuous manufacturing platform. Further, the transaction evidenced the strategic shift of the JEB business away from a pure CDMO services provider towards a more asset-light business model, which combines existing CDMO services at the Redmond facility with further revenue streams based on monetizing IP within the end-to-end continuous manufacturing process, including cell lines, media, and vectors.
Evotec ventures: Equity Investments
Evotec’s equity strategy started with the creation of Evotec’s spinout of Topas Therapeutics in 2016. Since then, we have made equity investments in products, technology platforms, companies and investment funds with the goal of obtaining early access to innovation and generating upside through our role as an operational partner and potential preclinical and clinical successes, or even positive commercial developments that could drive the valuation of individual portfolio companies. This could lead to returns on investments in case of successful exits from our portfolio companies, e.g. we sold Carrick Therapeutics in October 2025 and in December 2025 Dark Blue Therapeutics, which is advancing first-in-class, small molecule-targeted protein degraders for oncology, was acquired by Amgen. Evotec was invested in Dark Blue Therapeutics since 2020 when the company was founded out of the Academic Partnership BRIDGE LAB282.
With the divestment of Recursion at the end of 2024, we had already significantly reduced our equity investment exposure and continued to do so throughout 2025.As of December 31, 2025, we still have 29 equity engagements in our equity pipeline. Assets from Aurobac Therapeutics, Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, EIR Biotherapies, IMIDomics Immunitas Therapeutics, Sernova, Topas Therapeutics and Tubulis are the most advanced, with 10 active ongoing clinical trials (Phase I and II). Our ownership ranges from 0.1% to 39% in equity per company. Investments with a share greater than 20% or significant influence are recognized in our accounts “at equity”.
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Academic BRIDGEs
We are convinced that academic settings serve as a major source and point of origination and discovery of new pharmacological targets and drugs. For example, approximately 25% of drugs ultimately approved by the FDA originate from academia, according to a study published by CTS Clinical and Translational Sciences investigating the contribution of different types of organizations to drug innovation. We seek to address the lack of funding and access to expertise for translational projects from academia, which is one of the main hindrances to capital efficient drug discovery. Often, there is a lack of commercial understanding on how to advance assets to the next stage by university researchers. At the same time, there is a need for validation of academic findings on industry-grade platforms to increase data quality and reproducibility, which we address with our Biomedical Research, Innovation & Development Generation Efficiency (“BRIDGE”) model.
Operationally, BRIDGEs fall into three categories: (i) Contractual partnerships with academic institution(s) and investors or pharma companies with the aim of co-creating biotech companies; (ii) equity investments in start-up studios which focus on accelerating academic projects: and (iii) contractual partnerships with universities and a pharma company to co-create licensing opportunities for pharma. To date, we have created seven company-creating BRIDGE partnerships (LAB282, LAB150, beLAB2122, beLAB1407, Danube Labs, a BRIDGE with VC Amplitude Ventures, and 65LAB), three investments into start-up studios (Autobahn Labs, ArgoBio and Extend) and one licensing-engine BRIDGE (LAB eN2).
In 2024, Evotec and Novo Nordisk announced that its translational drug discovery accelerator, LAB eN², which aims to nurture early research from academic institutions into novel therapeutics, has selected its first three projects to move forward in the program from Boston University, Harvard University in collaboration with Mass General Brigham, and Joslin Diabetes Center. LAB eN² is also expanding to include five additional academic institutions: Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston University, Johns Hopkins University, Joslin Diabetes Center, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
In January 2025, we started a novel collaboration - together with Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, and the Korean biotech company Zymedi - to develop first-in-class therapeutic antibodies to treat asthma and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The project will focus on the preclinical development of novel anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic antibodies directed against tRNA synthetases, an emerging therapeutic target class to treat diseases with a high unmet medical need.
In November 2025, a University of Bristol project aiming to develop next-generation therapeutics for autoimmune diseases received over £850,000 in new funding through the beLAB1407 BRIDGE partnership, supported by Evotec and its global pharmaceutical collaborators. Their current work focuses on the structure-guided design of peptides – short chains of amino acids – to produce cyclic peptides capable of targeted activation of the human complement system.
By the end of 2025, BRIDGEs had built a portfolio of around 130 projects, engaged with 65 academic collaborators and 18 industry partners. These accomplishments position BRIDGEs as a notable and impactful pre-seed initiative within its field.
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Summary of Equity Holdings, including start-up studios as of December 31, 2025
Company Focus Equity stake %1
Aeovian Pharmaceuticals Inc. Inflammatory diseases 2.32
ArgoBio SAS Multiple 8.17
Aurobac Therapeutics SAS Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) 12.50
Autobahn Labs, LLC Multiple 10.53
Blacksmith Medicines Inc. Human metalloenzymes 17.97
Breakpoint Therapeutics GmbH Oncology (DDR) 34.03
Cajal Neuroscience Inc. Neurodegenerative disease 1.18
Carma Fund I Life Science VC 10.00
Celmatix Inc. Women's health 7.47
Centauri Therapeutics Ltd. Antimicrobial Resistance 22.18
Curie Bio LLC Life Science VC 0.10
Curie Bio Seed Fund I LP Life Science VC 2.83
EIR Biotherapies Srl Oncology 24.66
Eternygen GmbH* NASH 24.97
Extend Srl Multiple 9.10
Fibrocor LLP Fibrotic diseases 16.26
Fibrocor Therapeutics Inc. Fibrotic diseases 7.65
IMIDomics Inc. Inflammatory diseases 6.64
Immunitas Therapeutics Inc. Oncology 5.54
Leon Nanodrugs GmbH Nano-technology 3.99
Mission BioCapital V LP Life Science VC 3.64
Pluristyx Inc. Cell therapy 3.79
Quantro Therapeutics GmbH Functional genetic and transcriptomic technologies 38.79
Sernova Corp. Diabetes 4.73
TAG Therapeutics GmbH Oncology 20.16
Thelior Bio Ltd. Inflammation 1.18
Topas Therapeutics GmbH Nanoparticle-based therapeutics 23.86
Tubulis GmbH Antibody Drug Conjugates 3.33
Verto Therapeutics Inc. Oncology 4.16
* in liquidation
1) Share of investments based on issued shares, before full dilution (virtual shares or options not considered)
IP
We seek to protect and enhance the value of our proprietary drug discovery programs as well as our technology platforms, including proprietary processes, technologies, inventions, and methods, and their application to the R&D of treatments for serious diseases and methods of manufacture through the filling of IP. We pursue a multi-layered IP strategy to protect our technology platforms and their application to R&D of treatments for serious diseases. One focus of our IP strategy is to provide protection for our platforms and pipeline assets currently in development. We also pursue IP protection for assets that may be used in future development programs and/or that may be of interest to our partners or otherwise may prove valuable in the field.
Patent filings protect various aspects of our technology platforms and our pipeline assets, while other aspects remain trade secrets. We also pursue other methods of protection, including seeking trademark registrations, as appropriate. Many of our IP assets were developed and are owned solely by us, some have been acquired and are solely owned by us, some have been developed via collaboration and are jointly owned, and some have been licensed from third parties. We will continue to make additional patent application filings and pursue opportunities to acquire and license additional IP assets, technologies, platforms, or pipeline assets, as developments arise or are identified.
As of December 31, 2025, our owned patent portfolio included more than 50 patent families, each of which includes at least one filing in the United States or Europe, and several of which are pending or granted in multiple jurisdictions.
Below, we provide a summary of the contours of our current IP portfolio as it relates to different aspects of our business.
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Government Regulation
Government authorities in the EU, the United States and other countries and jurisdictions extensively regulate, among other things, the research, development, testing, manufacture, quality control, approval, packaging, storage, record-keeping, labeling, advertising, promotion, distribution, marketing, post- approval monitoring and reporting and import and export of pharmaceutical products. Compliance with applicable statutes and regulations and other requirements of regulatory authorities requires the expenditure of substantial time and financial resources.
Regulation of Drugs and Biologics
Like all companies in our industry, we need to follow a large set of international regulations. In the EU, pharmaceutical products are subject to a comprehensive scheme of regulatory requirements mainly set out at EU level, but country-specific regulations at EU member state level remain essential in many respects. These regulations exercise over all aspects of our operations including, but not limited to, research, development, testing, manufacturing, and quality control. They also govern all aspects of the operations of our customers and the partners with whom we co-own pipeline assets, including assessing safety and efficacy for purposes of marketing approval, labeling, storage, record keeping, commercialization, distribution, post-approval monitoring, advertising, pricing, and more.
In the United States, the FDA regulates pharmaceutical products. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the Public Health Service Act and other federal and state statutes and regulations apply to us, our customers, and our partners who develop our pipeline assets. Failure to comply with applicable U.S. requirements may subject a company to a variety of administrative or judicial sanctions, such as FDA refusal to approve pending new drug applications (“NDAs”) or biologics license applications (“BLAs”), warning or untitled letters, product recalls, product seizures, total or partial suspension of production or distribution, injunctions, fines, civil penalties, and criminal prosecution.
Preclinical Research
A robust package of preclinical data is required before clinical trials can begin. In the EU, if preclinical results warrant continuing development of the product candidate, before a clinical trial may commence, applicants are required to submit a clinical CTA to each country’s national health authority and an independent ethics committee. The CTA must include, among other things, a copy of the trial protocol and an investigational medicinal product dossier with supporting information, in particular preclinical data and information about the manufacture and quality of the medicinal product under investigation. In the United States, if preclinical results warrant continuing development of the product candidate the results of the studies are submitted to the FDA as part of an IND application. An IND includes, among other things, items such as preclinical data, manufacturing information, a proposed clinical protocol and an investigational plan and must be reviewed by the FDA and become effective before proposed clinical testing can begin.
Regulation of Testing Facilities
Our facilities are audited by regulatory agencies such as the FDA, MHRA, and similar foreign regulatory authorities as well as our customers to ensure compliance with requirements designed to ensure the quality and integrity of the testing process and data such as GLP and GMP and other requirements adopted by the EMA, the FDA, the Ministry of Health in the UK and by similar regulatory authorities in other countries, as applicable. GLPs and GMP require standardized procedures for all equipment, processes, and analytical tests, for recording and reporting data, and for retaining appropriate records.
Clinical Trials, Marketing Authorization Application (“MAA”), NDA or BLA Preparation and Submission
In the EU, all phases of clinical development are monitored and audited extensively by regulatory authorities of the relevant member states. Authorities scrutinize all clinical activities and data, and our partners must submit annual reports to the controlling authorities of the relevant member states detailing the progress of the trial. Our partners must also submit any information that suggests a significant risk to human patients or any clinically important increase in the rate of seriously suspected adverse reactions to regulatory authorities as and when they discover such information. The United States has adopted a similar regulatory scheme to the EU. Our partners typically carry out clinical development of our pipeline, including the conduct of human trials and interaction with regulatory authorities.
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Data Privacy and Security Laws and Regulations
As a primarily business-to-business focused organization, we do not market, sell, or distribute products or services directly to patients or consumers. Accordingly, the personal information that we collect and process, including human tissues and patient samples, is generally limited to what is necessary to conduct business with other businesses within our industry.
Nevertheless, we hold confidential personal information relating to people who have been and/or still are employed by the company. The possession, retention, use and disclosure of such information are highly regulated, particularly in the European Economic Area (“EEA”). The GDPR controls how personal data must be handled and places significant restrictions on the export of personal data from within the EEA to other third countries that have not been found to provide adequate protection for such personal data, including the United States, and the efficacy and longevity of current transfer mechanisms between the EEA and the United States remain uncertain. In the United States, numerous federal and state laws and regulations, including data breach notification laws, health information privacy and security laws, including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), and federal and state consumer protection laws and regulations (e.g., Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act), that govern the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of health-related and other personal information could apply to our operations or the operations of our partners. Failure to comply with these laws, where applicable, can result in the imposition of significant civil and/or criminal penalties and private litigation. Privacy and security laws, regulations, and other obligations are constantly evolving, may conflict with each other to complicate compliance efforts, and can result in investigations, proceedings, or actions that lead to significant civil and/or criminal penalties and restrictions on data processing.
Other EHS Laws and Regulations
We may be subject to numerous EHS laws and regulations, including those governing laboratory procedures and the handling, use, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous materials and wastes. From time to time and in the future, our operations may involve the use of hazardous and flammable materials, including chemicals and biological materials, and may produce hazardous waste products. Even if we contract with third parties for the disposal of these materials and waste products, we cannot eliminate the risk of contamination or injury resulting from these materials. In the event of contamination or injury resulting from the use or disposal of our hazardous materials, we could be held liable for any resulting damage, and any liability could exceed our resources. We also could incur significant costs associated with civil or criminal fines and penalties for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.
We maintain liability insurance (including, where applicable, workers’ compensation) to cover us for costs and expenses we may incur due to injuries to our employees, but this insurance may not provide adequate coverage against potential liabilities. We also tailored several continuities plans for different locations to mitigate serious environmental issues.
In addition, we may incur substantial costs to comply with current or future environmental, health and safety laws and regulations.
Current or future environmental laws and regulations may impair our research, development, or production efforts. In addition, failure to comply with these laws and regulations may result in substantial fines, penalties, or other sanctions.
Competition
The market for biotech/pharmaceutical R&D partnering, and services is competitive, based on modality-by-modality or technology-by-technology comparison. However, we believe we are well-positioned to offer our partners an integrated solution that cannot be replicated by combining selected elements made available by other service providers. We believe our services are differentiated based on the degree of integration, the number of modalities, precision, relevance, agility, and capacity to generate new data and the ability to exploit it with advance computing.
We believe that Evotec is one of very few companies that has assembled such a seamlessly integrated precision medicine platform.
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We compete in an industry characterized by rapidly advancing technologies, intense competition, and a complex IP landscape. With respect to other players in specific fields in the industry, we consider our competition to be as described below:
● External drug discovery and development: Several large CROs including Wuxi Apptec and Charles River Laboratories. Large pharma’s incumbent R&D organizations.
● PanOmics and patient-relevant disease modeling: Recursion and Adaptive Biotechnologies, Sequantrix, Owkin and Isomorphic, and, in the field of data-driven precision medicine in oncology, Schrödinger, Tempus.
● Tech enabled business models: Abcellera, Certara, Recursion and Schrödinger.
● iPSC-based regenerative therapy of Type I diabetes: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Century Therapeutics, and Sana Biotechnology, all of whom are developing iPSC-based treatments for Type I diabetes.
● iPSC-based treatments of cancer and immune disorders: Fate Therapeutics and Century Therapeutics.
● Treatment of Parkinson’s disease and heart failure: BlueRock Therapeutics (acquired by Bayer in August 2019);
● iPSC-based assay developments: Fate Therapeutics, Allele Biotechnology, Takeda, and Fujifilm, along with Contract Manufacturing Organizations (“CMOs”) such as Lonza, SCM Lifescience, Reporcell and Charles River Laboratories.
● Biologics development and manufacturing: CDMOs such as Lonza, Samsung Biologics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Wuxi Biologics or Avid Bioservices.
● Co-developed assets:
(a)Our agent for the treatment of Chikungunya virus infections faces competition from an Albumedix product with the same application.
(b)Our assets partnered with BMS treating neurodegenerative diseases may face competition from similar assets developed by Denali Therapeutics.
(c)SKY Covione (COVID-19) marketed by SK bioscience in South Korea is competing with several Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutic agents.
C. Organizational structure.
Evotec SE is a publicly listed European stock corporation operating under German law. Our headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany. We have operating sites in Germany, Italy, France, UK and US. The group has been successful in creating both operational and technological synergies between the sites and geographical regions by way of organic growth and strategic acquisitions. A listing of our significant subsidiaries and their jurisdiction of incorporation is included in Exhibit 8.1 to this 20-F filing.
D. Property, plants and equipment.
Our headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany, where we occupy office and laboratory space. We manage further laboratories and office facilities in Göttingen and Munich in Germany, Toulouse and Lyon in France, Abingdon and Manchester in the UK, Princeton, Framingham, Branford, Seattle, and Redmond in the United States, Verona, and Medolla in Italy. Manufacturing areas are available in Verona, Abingdon, Seattle, Medolla and Redmond sites. Some key steps to build this facilities setup were:
● In July 2019, we acquired Just Biotherapeutics Ltd., located in Seattle, United Stated (JEB), including 3,580 square meters of laboratory and office space.
● In July 2020, we acquired the Biopark by Sanofi SAS in Toulouse from Sanofi, including all land and buildings of the former Sanofi site. We also took over a second site of Sanofi in Lyon.
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● In the second quarter of 2021 we acquired the Verona site from GlaxoSmithKline SpA (“GSK”), consisting of 41,057 square meters of laboratory, production and office space.
● The acquisition of a dedicated site for R&D of gene therapy-based projects in Orth/Donau, Austria as part of its plan for profitable growth. The decision to close the site was announced in May 2024.
● In 2022, we added Proteomics capacity enlarging our footprint in Munich (new campus) and we expanded our laboratories in Princeton (U.S.), in Abingdon (UK) and in Verona (Italy).
● In the second half of 2022, we acquired Rigenerand in Medolla (now called Evotec (Modena) Srl) and an API production site in Halle (now called Evotec Drug Substance (“DS”)). In the first half of 2024 the group decided to discontinue the operation of Halle/Westphalia, Germany. On November 5, 2024, we have announced the sale of our chemical API manufacturing site, Evotec Drug Substance (“DS”) GmbH, located in Halle/Westphalia, to Monacum Partners GmbH - a Munich based Private Equity firm.
● In 2022, we completed the preparation activities to transfer our operations from the previous U.S. Watertown site to a new site located in Framingham (2,392 sqm). We moved into the new site at the beginning of 2023.
● In April 2024 we further consolidated our footprint through the closure of Marcy l’Étoile site in France
● In 2024 we optimized our footprint in Hamburg and in Göttingen through the consolidation of offices spaces and buildings.
● In 2024 we opened the new JPOD2 building in Toulouse adding 14.900sqm to our Biotherapeutics footprint.
● At the end of 2024 we entered in a new labs building in Alderley Park with the activation of building B22
● As part of our consolidation program at the end of February 2025 the Cologne site was closed.
● In September 2025 the new MEC4 building in Hamburg was handed over to Evotec.
● Already since July 2024, the JPOD2 site has been customized and dedicated entirely to our customer Sandoz. On July 30, 2025, Evotec SE and Sandoz AG signed a non-binding term sheet on a planned sale of Just – Evotec Biologics EU in Toulouse to Sandoz, followed by the signing of the contract in November 2025 and the final closing on December 5, 2025.
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The following table summarizes information with respect to the principal facilities leased and owned1) by us at the end of 2025:
Area
Location SQM total (gross)
France Total: 67,338
Lyon 2,270
Toulouse1) 65,068
Germany Total: 43,737
Göttingen 9,919
Hamburg 31,402
Munich 2,416
Italy Total: 43,138
Verona1) 41,128
Medolla1) 2,010
UK Total: 30,867
Abingdon 24,081
Nether Alderley 6,786
US Total: 24,794
Branford 2,192
Princeton 3,945
Redmond 12,887
Seattle 3,578
Framingham 2,192
Evotec total 210,065
We lease an aggregate of approximately 101,000 square meters, in Europe and the United States. Our leases expire on various dates from 2026 to 2043 (indicatively).
To facilitate the continued growth of our company, we regularly invest in upgrading and expanding our technology and infrastructure. For example, we have made major enhancements to our technology platform regarding the areas of translational biology, high-content imaging and proteomics. Additionally, we have made our scientific operations more efficient by adding additional state-of-the-art sample management technology.
We also continue to further upgrade and digitize our administrative tools and systems. We will continue to make CapEx to secure the further growth and scalability of our company.
Environmental Issues
To the best of our knowledge, currently there are no foreign, federal, state or local environmental laws, rules or regulations that will materially affect our results of operations or our position with respect to our competitors. However, we can provide no assurance of the effect that any possible future environmental laws will have on our operating results.