Evotec Appoints Dr. Joanna Holbrook as Chief Scientific Officer

Evotec's decision to seat a multi-omics and AI-fluent scientist at the CSO level signals a deliberate repositioning of its discovery and development platform at a moment when external partners are under growing scrutiny from sponsors evaluating scientific rigor alongside GMP compliance. Dr. Joanna Holbrook joins as Chief Scientific Officer and Member of the Management Board, effective November 1, 2026, bringing more than 25 years of experience across pharma, biotechnology, and academia.

Holbrook's profile is notably cross-disciplinary. Her background spans multi-modal omics, data science, novel therapeutic modalities, and precision medicine, complemented by direct experience commercializing discovery technologies and structuring drug discovery partnerships. Most recently she served as Therapy Area Head for Cardiovascular, Renal and Hepatic Disease and Head of in vitro Discovery Platforms at Novo Nordisk, a role that placed her at the intersection of translational science and platform operationalization.

Prior positions reinforce the breadth: CSO at UK biotech Biomodal, Vice President of Translational Medicine at BenevolentAI, Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Southampton, and Senior Principal Investigator at Singapore's A*STAR institute. She began her career at GSK, progressing through therapy area and bioinformatics functions. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from University College London and a B.Sc. in Genetics from the University of Newcastle.

For QA directors and regulatory affairs leads evaluating CDMO partnerships, the appointment carries a specific operational read. Evotec's platform already encompasses small molecules, biologics, cell therapies, iPSC-based disease modeling, and the PanOmics and Molecular Patient Database proprietary tools. Holbrook's stated mandate is to strengthen scientific differentiation and build integrated solutions across that stack, which will directly shape how Evotec structures its development and manufacturing partnerships going forward, including through Just – Evotec Biologics, its biologics development and manufacturing arm.

CEO Dr. Christian Wojczewski noted that Holbrook combines a forward-looking perspective on AI and data with a focus on generating robust, actionable results, a framing that aligns with sponsor expectations around data integrity and process validation readiness in early-phase programs handed off to manufacturing.

Plant heads and external partners monitoring Evotec's scientific governance should track how Holbrook's integration reshapes the company's discovery-to-development handoff protocols, particularly for programs advancing toward IND-enabling studies.

Source: Evotec SE via evotec.com, October 15, 2026.