goetzpartners advised EvoTec SE

Fortlane Partners advised Evotec SE (“Evotec”), the publicly listed life science company headquartered in Hamburg, on its acquisition of Italian-based Rigenerand Srl (“Rigenerand”), a leading cell technology company, for a purchase price of € 23m. Founded in 2009 as a spin-off of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Rigenerand is a pioneering company in the field of cGMP manufacturing of cell therapies.

The acquisition expands Evotec’s cell therapy platform EVOcells by adding a dedicated, high-quality cGMP manufacturing site. The seamless integration of discovery and development of innovative cures combined with in-house capabilities in GMP manufacturing are mandatory within this field. While the revenue contribution will not be significant at the beginning, the manufacturing capability of Rigenerand along with the exceptional R&D power of Evotec will strengthen Evotec’s ability to successfully win new integrated partnerships within the innovative field of cell therapy.

Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, commented: “Cell therapies are an exciting emerging therapeutic modality with broad applicability across many indications. Originating from our leading iPSC platform, Evotec’s EVOcells platform enables the delivery of innovative cell therapeutics from inception to the patient. The acquisition of Rigenerand adds manufacturing capacity and expertise to the EVOcells platform. Our conversations with our partners as well as our own industry observations have made it clear that horizontal expansion and rapid iteration at the scale-up are critical within the cell therapy space. As we see very strong demand for our standalone Just – Evotec Biologics J.POD®s in the US and EU, it is strategically the logical step to build separate capability and capacity internally. We warmly welcome the Rigenerand team into the Evotec family and are excited to leverage their skill and expertise for our partners and ultimately the patients.”

Fortlane Partners acted as sole M&A financial advisor to Evotec. This transaction further demonstrates Fortlane Partners' ability to achieve outperforming results and underlines our competence as advisor of choice in the Healthcare & Life Sciences space, with a special expertise in cross-border transactions.

About Evotec
Evotec is a life science company with a unique business model that delivers on its mission to discover and develop highly effective therapeutics and make them available to the patients. The Company’s multimodality platform comprises a unique combination of innovative technologies, data and science for the discovery, development, and production of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products. Evotec leverages this “Data-driven R&D Autobahn to Cures” for proprietary projects and within a network of partners including all top 20 pharma and over 800 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, as well as other healthcare stakeholders. Evotec has strategic activities in a broad range of currently underserved therapeutic areas, including e.g. neurology, oncology, as well as metabolic and infectious diseases. Within these areas of expertise, Evotec aims to create the world-leading co-owned pipeline for innovative therapeutics and has to-date established a portfolio of more than 200 proprietary and co-owned R&D projects from early discovery to clinical development. Evotec operates globally with more than 4,200 highly qualified people. The Company’s 15 sites offer highly synergistic technologies and services and operate as complementary clusters of excellence.

About Rigenerand
Founded in 2009 and based in Medolla (Italy), Rigenerand operates with their highly specialised team a first-class certified facility that integrates state-of-the-art cGMP production with R&D and QC labs as well as development labs. The production facility, called “cell factory”, comprises a series of fully equipped clean rooms for the manufacturing of complex cell-based therapies.

Transaction team:

Ulrich Kinzel
Managing Director
 

Youchen Xin
Associate Director

Richard Arand
Associate

Charlotte Prautzsch
Analyst