Exscientia, an Oxford-based AI drugs discovery company spun out of Dundee University, has reached agreement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) over a $70 million collaboration. The tie-up will see Exscientia work with the foundation, an NGO, to develop broad-based therapeutics it is hoped will help tackle both the ongoing coronavirus crisis and future pandemics.
The initial focus of the partnership, which will run for an initial four years, will be coronavirus therapeutics. That will then expand to developing therapeutics targeting influenza and Nipah viruses which, like coronaviruses, are zoonotic.
Exscientia uses proprietary AI algorithms to quickly suggest therapeutic candidate drugs based on scientific concepts. The process allows multiple candidates to be quickly developed for preliminary testing, increasing the probability of success and massively accelerating the traditional drugs discovery process.
The collaboration between the company and the foundation will attempt to discover then develop small molecule therapeutics that are both less likely to see their effectiveness drastically reduced by new virus variants and also allow better patient access by coming in orally consumed form. Orally consumed drugs are cheaper to manufacture, store and transport than those injected.
Exscientia director of portfolio management Denise Barrault commented on the partnership’s aims for developed therapeutics:
“Certain targets are prevalent across families of viruses, meaning that potent therapeutics could be broadly effective across multiple virus families.”
Since spinning out of the University of Dundee in Scotland in 2012, where Excsientia still has a site despite relocating its HQ to the Oxford Science Park, the company has been expanding quickly. It has employed 100 new members of staff so far this year and expects to add the same number again over the next 12 months. The company also has offices in Vienna, Miami and Osaka.
A $225 million series-D funding round closed by Exscientia in April of this year represented one of the largest ever by a UK biotech company. The round was led by Japanese technology investor SoftBank and also saw existing investors including BlackRock, UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala and the U.S. pharma giants Bristol Myers Squibb all top up their exposure.
The partnership agreement will see Exscientia receive a $35 million equity investment from the Gates Foundation which could be topped up by additional grant funding from the NGO to advance development candidates through to commercialisation.
Exscientia will lead initial antiviral projects and apply its AI to the research, discovery and development of up to five phase-1-ready small molecule therapeutics. A target of the second half of next year has been set for a first drug candidate to have been selected for clinical trials.
Exscientia will also put up $35 million in funding and will retain the global rights to any therapeutics that progress to commercialisation, though they must be made “affordable and accessible to people in developing countries”.