Exscientia plc has announced progression of two additional discovery programs within its collaboration with Sanofi. Both lead compounds have met the product profile requirements, set by both parties, to enable a transition to the lead optimization phase within the collaboration.
Exscientia plc has described NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of atherosclerosis, autoimmune disease, cancer, gout, inflammatory and neurological disorders, psoriasis and sickle cell disease.
Researchers from Exscientia plc presented preclinical data for the novel reversible LSD1 inhibitor EXS-74539, being developed as a monotherapy or in combination with standard of care for the treatment of oncology and hematology indications including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and small-cell lung cancer.
Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1 (MALT1) is a key regulator of immune signaling that supports proliferation and promotes metastasis while maintaining the tumor microenvironment under immunosuppression. Researchers from Exscientia plc and Evotec SE reported on the characterization of EXS-73565.
Merck KGaA has entered deals that could bring U.K. artificial intelligence companies Benevolentai Ltd. and Exscientia plc more than $1.2 billion. Oxford, U.K.-based Exscientia and Merck will collaborate to find three small-molecule candidates in oncology, neuroinflammation and immunology. Exscientia is getting $20 million up front and could bring in $674 million in milestones payments.
It’s been 20 years since Andrew Hopkins, founder and CEO of artificial intelligence drug research firm Exscientia plc, co-authored the seminal paper “The Druggable Genome,” which laid the foundations for the company and gave insights about how to make research more efficient and less costly. Now Hopkins’ colleagues at Exscientia have taken stock of progress in a new paper, “The druggable genome: Twenty years later,” that summarizes advances in the field and evolution in thinking over the past two decades.
Making good on ambitions to increase its say in the development of drug candidates from its AI-driven discovery platform, as well as the breadth of roles the system serves, Exscientia plc said Jan. 7 it will work with longtime partner Sanofi SA to develop up to 15 new small-molecule candidates for oncology and immunology indications. Sanofi will pay Exscientia $100 million up front and up to $5.2 billion in total milestones, plus tiered royalties, it said.
DUBLIN – A strong performance in the final quarter of 2021 pushed equity investment in European biotech firms engaged in discovering and developing therapeutics to a new record of $15.193 billion, a 19.8% increase on last year’s total of $12.682 billion. European biotech firms have now set a new investment benchmark for each of the past five years.
Exscientia plc has raised $510.4 million in an upsized Nasdaq IPO and private funding round as it pushes forward with its artificial intelligence-based drug discovery mission. The Oxford, U.K.-based company aims to out-license some of its candidates to other companies, while saving others for its own pipeline.
