Dr. Werner Lanthaler
Management
We wanted to also upfront mention this already in the presentation and we are very happy about this, that we don’t see a slowdown of our partner’s requests at this stage for what we are offering. And that’s why I think it is very important always to distinguish that Evotec is not a trivial, quote-unquote, exchangeable CRO than many others are out there. What we are offering to our partners are solutions that have true impact to increase the efficiency of what they are presenting. I think it’s, in some parts, even the reverse, that working with Evotec is making the partners, who work with us more efficient and with this they can deliver more data in shorter periods of time at higher quality. And with this, we are -- actually the answer to the funding problems that many of the biotech companies have out there and that’s why we think this is, at this stage, a positive situation for us that people are increasing, realizing the technological power that we bring to their questions and to their situations. That’s one aspect. And the other aspect is, of course, we have a very good balance of partners, which are large pharma driven and large pharma commitments to R&D are not slowing down, actually the demand for pipeline is increasing at many of the large pharma companies. We have a very strong hook to many of the mission-driven foundations, which are not affected by the funding environment and we have a very strong hook to many academic partners, who are also not affected by the funding environment as it is right now. When it comes to our biotech partners, I think, we should point out that many of the biotech partners who work with us are funded from excellent venture capital firms, who have long-term funds where the funds have been raised in the 2017, 2018, 2019 timeframe and where these funds are currently in spending mode for the next years. So therefore, also here, the existing portfolio companies are typically still very well funded. And that’s why if the funding environment is, I would say, picking up in two years to three years from now, then we are, at this stage, very well-positioned for all that we do here, and again, we are very happy about the situation.