Frontier IP chief executive officer Neil Crabb said: “Today’s announcements confirm Exscientia’s exciting potential. The strong support for the financing round from major companies in the life sciences industry and the collaboration with Roche strengthen our belief it will become one of the leading AI-driven drug discovery companies in the world.”
Frontier IP (LON:FIPP), a specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, is pleased to note the two statements made today by portfolio company Exscientia Limited, a world leader in artificial intelligence (“AI”) driven drug discovery, announcing:
· The Company has raised US$26 million in a Series B financing round to scale up its pipeline and advance selected programmes towards clinical development. The round includes participation from new investors Celgene Corporation and specialist healthcare investor GT Healthcare Capital Partners, and existing investor Evotec AG.
· An AI drug discovery collaboration with Roche worth up to CHF 67 million in upfront and research funding, development and commercial milestone payments. In addition, Exscientia will also receive tiered royalties on annual net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration.
The full text of both statements is below. Following the financing round, Frontier IP now holds a 3.32 per cent. stake in Exscientia, which is already collaborating with several leading pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, including GSK, Sanofi and Evotec.
On participating in the financing round, Dr Rupert Vessey, President of Research and Early Development at Celgene, said: “Exscientia has demonstrated that AI in molecular design is here today. With the global pharmaceutical industry acknowledging the importance of incorporating AI-driven R&D approaches into their drug discovery processes, we see a huge growth opportunity ahead. We believe Exscientia is set to become a global leader in AI-driven drug discovery and are excited to participate in this investment round.”
On the collaboration with Roche, Professor Andrew Hopkins, chief executive officer and founder of Exscientia, said: “The application of AI into early stage drug discovery has the potential to offer transformational benefits in terms of productivity and quality to the generation of new medicines. Increasingly, we are seeing in our own pipeline projects and with our ongoing collaborations, the success of our AI platform in drug discovery. This new partnership with Roche demonstrates the value of our AI-driven platform and its potential to deliver high value assets. We are very pleased to begin this exciting project with such a respected partner.”
The two Exscientia statements:
Exscientia Raises US$26 Million in Series B Financing Round to
Accelerate Scaling as the Leading AI Drug Discovery Company
New Investors Celgene Corporation and GT Healthcare Capital Partners join Series A Investor Evotec
Oxford, UK – 7th January 2019
Exscientia – the world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company – today announces it has raised US$26 million in a Series B financing round. This will be used to scale the company’s pipeline and advance selected programmes towards clinical development. The round included participation from new investors Celgene Corporation and specialist healthcare investor GT Healthcare Capital Partners, as well as existing investor Evotec AG.
Alan Au, Managing Partner of GT Healthcare Capital Partners, commented: “We are very excited to back Exscientia and partner with a world-class team to further extend its business, including in Asia. We have a shared vision to revolutionize traditional drug development processes and believe Exscientia’s unique capabilities have the potential to deliver well beyond cost-effectiveness and speed, to first-in-class and best-in-class drugs that benefit patients in the near future.”
Dr Rupert Vessey, President of Research and Early Development at Celgene, said: “Exscientia has demonstrated that AI in molecular design is here today. With the global pharmaceutical industry acknowledging the importance of incorporating AI-driven R&D approaches into their drug discovery processes, we see a huge growth opportunity ahead. We believe Exscientia is set to become a global leader in AI-driven drug discovery and are excited to participate in this investment round.”
Professor Andrew Hopkins, CEO and founder of Exscientia, said: “This Series B marks a milestone in our development and enables us to drive the next phase of strong business growth. Over the past 12 months we have substantially expanded our operations and capabilities to become a full stack AI drug discovery company. Furthermore, our unique Centaur Chemist™ platform allows us to move rapidly from idea generation to new drug molecules ready for IND and clinical development. With this new funding Exscientia is positioned to become the dominant player in AI drug discovery, driving radical change in R&D productivity. We are excited Celgene and GT Healthcare have joined with existing investor Evotec on this exciting journey.”
The company has made considerable progress during 2018 and anticipates its first programmes driven by AI to be IND-ready within the next 12 months. The speed and capital efficiency demonstrated by Exscientia is already revolutionising the economics of small molecule discovery and in the future, this improved throughput will deliver benefits to patients.
Dr Werner Lanthaler, Chief Executive Officer of Evotec, said: “We continue to be very impressed with the progress Exscientia has made over the past year. Through our partnership with Exscientia we have seen first-hand evidence that they can deliver the most productive drug discovery engine in the industry. This latest funding will allow Exscientia to apply its platform at scale, taking advantage of the efficiencies that its AI-driven systems provide.”
Exscientia will use the proceeds of this financing round to grow its “full stack” AI drug discovery capability to dramatically expand its pipeline, with a target of establishing an expansive portfolio of projects, both in-house and with partners by the end of 2019.
Alex Snow, Executive Chairman of Exscientia, said: “Exscientia has validated its technology by delivering multiple pre-clinical drug candidates with unprecedented efficiency. Exscientia’s platform has the potential to bring a generation of new medicines to the market by offering a technologically and financially superior approach to drug discovery that will benefit patients. I am personally very excited to be part of Exscientia’s next stage of development, and to have the backing of such prestigious investors.”
Exscientia were advised by Rothschild & Co on this transaction.
Exscientia Initiates Sixth AI Drug Discovery Partnership
Exscientia to receive up to CHF 67 million in upfront payments, research support, and milestone payments in discovery collaboration with Roche
Oxford, UK – 7th January 2019
Exscientia – the world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company – is pleased to announce a drug discovery collaboration with Roche.
Exscientia will apply its cutting-edge, Centaur Chemist™, AI drug discovery platform to design pre-clinical drug candidates for Roche. Roche has the exclusive rights to develop and market the drug candidates resulting from the collaboration.
Exscientia receives upfront and research funding as well as pre-clinical, development and commercial milestone payments. Together, the combined financial reward is worth up to CHF 67 million to Exscientia, plus tiered royalties on the annual net sales of any products resulting from the collaboration. No further financial details are disclosed.
Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, said: “The application of AI into early stage drug discovery has the potential to offer transformational benefits in terms of productivity and quality to the generation of new medicines. Increasingly, we are seeing in our own pipeline projects and with our ongoing collaborations, the success of our AI platform in drug discovery. This new partnership with Roche demonstrates the value of our AI-driven platform and its potential to deliver high value assets. We are very pleased to begin this exciting project with such a respected partner.”
Exscientia statements end
