Sanofi and Exscientia Partner to Develop AI-driven Pipeline of Precision-Engineered Medicines


French pharma giant Sanofi and British pharmatech business Exscientia revealed a ground-breaking research cooperation and licensing agreement to develop up to 15 innovative small molecule candidates in oncology and immunology, employing Exscientia’s end-to-end AI-driven platform and actual patient samples.

Exscientia to acquire a $100 Mill with the possibility of a total milestone payment of $5.2 billion

Exscientia will acquire a $100 million upfront cash payment, with the possibility of a total milestone payment of $5.2 billion plus tiered royalties. Sanofi in-licensed Exscientia’s unique bispecific small molecule candidate capable of addressing two separate sites in inflammation and immunology in 2019. The companies have been working together since 2016.

Frank Nestle, Global Head of Research and Chief Scientific Officer, Sanofi stated:

,,We look forward to deepening our work with Exscientia, a leader in leveraging AI to modernize all aspects of drug discovery and development. Sanofi’s collaboration with Exscientia aims to transform how we discover and develop new small molecule medicines for cancer and immune-mediated diseases. Application of sophisticated AI and machine learning methods will not only shorten drug discovery timelines, but will also help to design higher quality and better targeted medicines for patients.”

Employing Exscientia’s personalized medicine platform, the two companies will discover and choose specific projects. Using primary human tissue samples in early target and drug development research, the platform allows for a “patient-first” approach. Exscientia scientists will be able to incorporate patient, illness, and clinically relevant data into judgments on prospective new medication candidates sooner in the drug development process as a result of this. Exscientia will also be in charge of small molecule medication creation and optimization up to development candidate nomination, with Sanofi handling preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization.

Andrew Hopkins, DPhil, CEO and founder of Exscientia commented:

“It is immensely exciting to collaborate with Sanofi with our goal of realizing the full potential of AI to deliver the next generation of cancer and immunology medicines. Our AI-driven platform can be leveraged across drug discovery, translational research and development, with applications ranging from improving the precision medicine and quality of drug candidates to enriching for patient selection in clinical trials. Our expanded collaboration with Sanofi will utilise the breadth of our platform to test AI-designed drug candidates against patient tissue models, potentially providing far better accuracy than conventional approaches such as mouse models. When you consider the change this represents – testing candidates against actual human tissue years before a clinical trial – it’s transformative.”

Exscientia will receive an upfront cash payment of $100 million from Sanofi as part of the deal and will be eligible for future research, translational, clinical development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments totaling up to $5.2 billion if all program objectives are met. If a medication developed through the cooperation is commercialized by Sanofi, Exscientia will also be eligible for tiered royalties on product sales ranging from the high single digits to the mid-teens, as well as the possibility of clinical co-investment, which would enhance the royalty rate on net sales of co-funded goods to up to 21 percent. The initial cash payment of $100 million is planned to be shown as cash inflows from collaborations in Exscientia’s first quarter 2022 financial results and recognized as revenue during the course of the agreement.

About Exscientia

Exscientia is an AI-driven pharmatech business dedicated to finding, creating, and producing the greatest pharmaceuticals in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Exscientia, which went public on the Nasdaq in October, created the world’s first functional precision oncology platform, which was used to successfully guide therapy selection and enhance patient outcomes in a prospective interventional clinical research, as well as to advance AI-designed small medicines into the clinic. With more than 25 projects in development, including the first three AI-designed drug candidates to reach Phase 1 clinical trials, our pipeline illustrates our capacity to quickly transform scientific concepts into precision-designed therapeutic prospects. Exscientia has offices in Oxford, Vienna, Dundee, Boston, Miami and Osaka.

For more information visit https://www.exscientia.ai

About Sanofi

Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health challenges. The global biopharmaceutical company is focused on human health. Sanofi strives to prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments to fight pain and ease suffering. With more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe.


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