Evotec, a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company, and Eternygen, a Berlin-based, privately owned biopharmaceutical company, are collaborating to develop novel small molecule inhibitors against an Eternygen target to treat metabolic diseases using Evotec's technology platform and experience in drug discovery and preclinical development.

Eternygen is working on the sodium coupled citrate transporter NaCT, a novel target that is a key regulator of energy metabolism involved in the pathogenesis of fatty liver, diabetes and obesity. NaCT, also known as PMCT or SLC13A5, is a sodium coupled citrate transporter predominantly expressed in liver cells and the mammalian homolog of the INDY (I am not dead yet) gene in Drosophila. NaCT is an attractive therapeutic target for the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes by influencing the mammalian energy metabolism.

Evotec will use its best-in-class drug discovery platform to discover and develop a suitable clinical candidate.