COMPANY PORTRAIT_Evotec Drug evolution riding high Evotec’s history illustrates that biotechnology made in Germany can set standards worldwide. The Max Planck Society is one of the company’s founders and continues to shape it to this day. TEXT DIRK BÖTTCHER n the early 1990s, few people had Evotec is one of Germany’s most suc- until that time, scientists had focused heard of evolutionary molecular cessful biotechnology stories. The com- their research on individual molecules, biology, this field was a source of pany is growing at a breathtaking pace, using their knowledge of biochemistry inspiration for entrepreneurs and utilizing unique technologies, and its to try to achieve specific binding prop- investors. Co-founded by the No- approach based on highly-automated, erties – and, by extension, a desired ef- bel IPrize Laureate Manfred Eigen from industrial-scale translational research fect. Just what might they achieve, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysi- has revolutionized the industry. Most however, if they could investigate a cal Chemistry in Goettingen in 1993, notably, the company has been shaped vast number of these molecules using Hamburg-based Evotec Biosystems set by some of the most remarkable scien- a quasi-evolutionary process in a single out to investigate pharmaceutical sub- tists of our time. device? Eigen’s vision, previously un- stances using the technique Eigen had imaginable, would come to fruition. developed. In a nutshell, the technique FOURTEEN SITES, SIX COUNTRIES, Visiting Evotec in Hamburg today is based on utilizing evolutionary pro- 3,000 EMPLOYEES shows how brilliant his idea was. Es- cesses such as selection by random tablished as a small company with a variations to research and develop First and foremost, they include Man- starting capital of EUR 7 million and a drugs. Such an approach, it was hoped, fred Eigen (1927–2019), co-founder and handful of employees, the company would allow scientists to conduct au- Chief Scientist of Evotec. In 1994, he tomated analyses of the effects of a described the hopes researchers had for Using technology to fight tumors: among large number of substances on specific the future of evolutionary molecular other things, Evotec utilizes lung cancer cells target structures or directly on cellular biology, a technique he was instrumen- to develop assays that can be used to develop processes. Novel drugs, for example, tal in developing, in the scientific jour- more effective cancer treatments. Visible in the cells are the nuclei (blue), mitochondria could then be developed faster, more nal Science: “You can solve problems (orange), lysosomes (dark red), and actin precisely, and at a lower cost. in ways you never would think of.” Up filaments (green). Photo: Evotec 58 MaxPlanckResearch Special | 20 Photo: Evotec Special | 20 MaxPlanckResearch 59 COMPANY PORTRAIT_Evotec A flair for promising discoveries: in 1967, aged just 40, Manfred Eigen was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the development of a method for studying extremely fast chemical reactions. He became the founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and co-founder of several companies. He was able to quickly recognize how to harness the economic potential of unexpected findings. now occupies several buildings at its containers with tiny plastic tubes, and renowned biotechnology company Qia- headquarters and has grown to become places them in incubators – a miracle gen – still one of the few highly success- one of the world’s leading providers machine that cultures and analyzes “in- ful German biotech companies. The fact of research and development services. duced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSC). that both of them took their leave from More than 3,000 employees work at Using a combination of four genes, this meteorically successful venture to fourteen locations in six countries, an- then coding for specific transcription found a new company with Manfred nual sales are approaching EUR 500,000, factors, adult (already differentiated) Eigen and the Max Planck Society shows and its current CEO, Werner Lanthaler, cells can be reprogrammed to become how convinced they were by the idea claims that the company is only just iPS cells. The Japanese scientist Shinya and by Eigen’s technology. embarking on its development (see the Yamanaka, among others, was awarded interview on page 63). the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine for LOOKING FOR MARKETABLE the development of these techniques. INNOVATIONS DRUG SCREENING They have huge potential, particularly ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE in the field of regenerative medicine, be- “As Max Planck Society employees, we cause iPS cells can proliferate indefinite- were certainly slower certainly slower Since Lanthaler took over as CEO in ly and can differentiate into all the than the other founders might have 2009, the value of Evotec shares has body’s cell types. With its iPSC platform, wished, but we were venturing into increased by more than 3,000 percent, Evotec is aiming to scale up drug screen- completely new territory,” recalls Jörn its workforce has increased tenfold, ing to an industrial scale, while meeting Erselius. Erselius is the current Manag- the company is in the black, and its the highest standards for throughput, ing Director of Max Planck Innovation market capitalization is more than EUR reproducibility and robustness. GmbH (MI) and was involved in found- 3,000,000,000. The evidence for Lan- Sitting in Manfred Eigen’s Goettin- ing the spin-off company Evotec. At thaler’s optimism can be seen in a small gen office back at the beginning of the time, MI had only just founded a room in the laboratory wings of Evotec’s 1993, did Evotec’s founders genuinely company, Sugen Inc. in the U.S., in headquarters. The multi-story building anticipate the scale of the company’s which the Max Planck Society also held with its imposing glass facade has Man- success? It’s possible that they did not, shares. At Evotec’s founding, Eigen, fred Eigen’s name emblazoned above even though two of them, Karsten Henco, and Aldag proposed that the the entrance. Inside a window provides Henco and Ulrich Aldag were perhaps Max Planck Society should also take a visitors with a glimpse into the labora- among the most ambitious entrepre- five percent stake in the company and tory. Enclosed in a glass box, a robot arm neurs of the day. As founder and man- contribute a good dozen of its patents. moves back and forth, grips small sam- ager respectively, they had recently “We had never owned shares in a Ger- ple containers, pipettes, sorts, empties had recently successfully launched the man company. As far as patents were Photo: Inge von Kruse 60 MaxPlanckResearch Special | 20 concerned, some belonged solely to us, view, they are like incubators, fre- Dedicated to its founder: Evotec is located while others were jointly owned with quently enabling technologies to be on its own campus named after Manfred Eigen Qiagen. Before Sugen and Evotec, the brought to the marketplace faster and in Hamburg-Langenhorn. statutes of the Max Planck Society pro- with greater agility. “Our network of in- hibited the acquisition of shares in vestors and experienced managers is companies by their founders to pre- now very extensive and a great resource vent conflicts of interest. This complex for such start-ups.” mixture of interests turned out to be a great challenge, but a future-orientat- FOURTEEN MILLION ed solution was arrived at with the COMPOUNDS SCREENED IN 2019 Max Planck Society,” says Erselius. Today, spin-offs are common prac- When Evotec was founded, plans were tice in the science community. MI now made to develop three business divi- employs five start-up managers with a sions: pharmaceutical research, diag- predominantly business management nostics, and technical enzymes (for ex- background who support spin-offs in ample in detergents). In the medium to interdisciplinary teams. Since the early long term, the plan was to float each of 1990s, in addition to Evotec, over 150 these again on the stock market. In other companies have been spun off 2000, this was achieved with Direvo, from the Max Planck Society. These em- which manufactures technical enzymes. ploy thousands of people. Many com- Just one year earlier, in 1999, Evotec had panies have reduced their own research itself successfully gone public. It was and development expenditure in recent the first time that the Max Planck Soci- years, for example in the pharmaceuti- ety had held shares in a German com- cal industry. “More than ever before, pany, and, as a research facility, it need- such companies are now looking for ed to decide how it should manage market-ready technologies; our basic such investments. According to Erse- research is frequently still underdevel- lius, it was decided at that time “to hold oped for the market,” says Erselius. on to the stocks initially to send a sig- Start-ups are therefore often an ideal nal to the market that we had confi- way “to translate know-how from basic dence in the business model.” It was Photo: Inge von Kruse Photo: Evotec research onto the marketplace.” In his only after a few years had passed that Special | 20 MaxPlanckResearch 61 COMPANY PORTRAIT_Evotec the Max Planck Society gradually sold healthy cells react to the drug under with complete consistency. Evotec its stocks worth several million euros. investigation; the goal, after all, is to charges many of its customers on a tra- An innovative regulation was also kill cancer cells rather than healthy ditional performance-based basis. For found to solve the complex problem of tissue. Other devices measure the many of the jointly developed projects, the patents it held. “Ultimately, we binding forces between the active sub- Evotec has also concluded “co-owning” combined all the patents into one port- stances and cells.