Evotec Acquires Zebrafish Screening Operations of Summit Corporation

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* Strong addition to Evotec's core business in drug
discovery
* Acquisition against £ 0.5 million cash in 2009 expected
to add approximately £ 1.5 million revenues in 2010
* Additional expansion of geographic reach to Asia

Hamburg, Germany - Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT; NASDAQ:
EVTC) today announced that the Company will acquire the zebrafish
screening operations of Summit Corporation plc, including operations
in Abingdon, UK, and Singapore, for £ 0.5 million in cash.

Summit's zebrafish technology is a strong addition to Evotec's
industrialized high-quality drug discovery platform. This capability
is valuable to drug discovery as it provides important whole organism
data about the safety and toxicity of drug-like molecules at an early
stage of lead optimization. It thereby allows prioritization of the
most promising compounds early in the drug discovery process,
reducing the risk of potential later-stage failure and, ultimately,
lowering costs in drug discovery and development.

Founded in 2003, Summit has built the world's leading zebrafish
capability. The company had collaborated with more than 25
pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The alliances include a
three-year research agreement with Johnson & Johnson signed at the
end of 2008 to support the development of new assays using the
zebrafish platform as well as collaborations with Bayer-Schering,
Merck KGaA, Merz, Roche and Servier. Evotec expects this business to
contribute revenue in 2009 (May to December) and to rapidly grow
revenue and profitability over the next two years.

Dr Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec commented: "We
get access to a portfolio of validated safety pharmacology and
toxicology assays and disease models for target validation that enjoy
growing interest in our industry. The integration of this business
offers significant synergies, including the move of Summit's UK
operations into our facilities in Abingdon, the integration of this
offering into our global sales and marketing network as well as the
use of the Singapore facility as a base to target new growth markets
in the Far East, expanding our current business reach."

Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, added:
"Through this small acquisition of Summit's zebrafish operations we
are enhancing our world-class drug discovery platform. Besides strict
cost containment one core element of our Evotec 2012 Action Plan to
Focus and Grow is the further investment and expansion of our unique
Discovery Alliance Business. This transaction is a first example of
how we will continue to develop this business to build on our
world-class leadership role."

Background information

About zebrafish screening technology
Zebrafish have the potential to accelerate and de-risk the drug
discovery and development process by reducing attrition rates and
lowering the development cost of producing new drugs. Zebrafish are
well-characterised model organisms and are used in the screening of
potential drug candidates to provide invaluable in vivo safety and
efficacy data from the earliest stages of drug discovery and
throughout the development process. With a significant genetic
similarity to humans and the presence of many vital organs including
the heart, brain and liver, the larval zebra-fish is highly suitable
for screening potential drug candidates for efficacy and safety
effects. Screening in zebrafish provides many advantages over other
established in vivo models by allowing large numbers of compounds to
be rapidly profiled using small amounts of compound.
Summit has developed a range of high-throughput safety pharmacology
and toxicity screens and also several important zebrafish disease
models that can be used to identify and evaluate potential new drug
candidates.

Contact: Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer,
Evotec AG, Tel.: +49.(0)40.56081-242, werner.lanthaler@evotec.com

Contact: Anne Hennecke, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations &
Corporate Communications, Evotec AG, Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-286,
anne.hennecke@evotec.com

Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this press release contains forward-looking
statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements about our expectations and assumptions concerning future
revenues in connection with the acquisition of Summit's zebrafish
screening operations, the capabilities of zebrafish technology and
its value to the drug discovery process, regulatory, clinical and
business strategies, the progress of our clinical development
programs and timing of the results of our clinical trials, strategic
collaborations and management's plans, objectives and strategies.
These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject
to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our
control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially
from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In
particular, the risks and uncertainties include, among other things:
risks that product candidates may fail in the clinic or may not be
successfully marketed or manufactured; risks relating to our ability
to advance the development of product candidates currently in the
pipeline or in clinical trials; our inability to further identify,
develop and achieve commercial success for new products and
technologies; the risks that competing products may be more
successful; our inability to interest potential partners in our
technologies and products; our inability to achieve commercial
success for our products and technologies; our inability to protect
our intellectual property and the cost of enforcing or defending our
intellectual property rights; our failure to comply with regulations
relating to our products and product candidates, including FDA
requirements; the risk that the FDA may interpret the results of our
studies differently than we have; the risk that clinical trials may
not result in marketable products; the risk that we may be unable to
successfully secure regulatory approval of and market our drug
candidates; and risks of new, changing and competitive technologies
and regulations in the U.S. and internationally.

The list of risks above is not exhaustive. Our most recent Annual
Report on Form 20-F, filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, and other documents filed with, or furnished to the
Securities and Exchange Commission, contain additional factors that
could impact our businesses and financial performance. We expressly
disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any
updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in
our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances
on which any such statement is based.

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Evotec AG
Schnackenburgallee 114 Hamburg Germany

WKN: 566480; ISIN:
DE0005664809 ; Index: Prime All Share, CDAX, HDAX, MIDCAP, TECH All
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