Exscientia and Celgene sign $25m collaboration

Exscientia, a UK-based small molecule discovery technology spinout of University of Dundee, received $25m today through a three-year drug design collaboration with pharmaceutical developer Celgene.
The up-front payment could be augmented by additional funding on the fulfilment of milestones related to clinical, regulatory and commercial considerations.
Exscientia will also receive tiered royalties on any product sales resulting from the partnership, which will exploit the spinout’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered Centaur Chemist platform to uncover small molecule candidates for three Celgene programs targeting oncology and autoimmune diseases.
Founded in 2012, Exscientia uses its AI technology to speed up the drug discovery process. The platform starts by selecting the best candidates from millions of potential compounds drawn from prior scientific research, before exposing them to a cycle of experiments through which new datapoints are attained and integrated.
The Celgene partnership follows a $68m tie-up with another drug maker, Roche, announced in January 2019, in addition to arrangements agreed with pharma companies GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi and drug discovery company Evotec.
Evotec and Celgene had joined venture firm GT Healthcare Capital Partners for Exscientia’s $26m series B round two months ago, adding to $17.7m put into the spinout by Evotec in September 2017.
In November last year, Exscientia expanded with the acquisition of fellow Dundee spinout Kinetic Discovery, taking ownership of the latter’s biophysics information services business.
Andrew Hopkins, chief executive of Exscientia, added: “Today, patients can wait more than ten years from initial drug discovery to its availability as a treatment.
“With autoimmune diseases and cancer rates increasing, the pharmaceutical industry’s R&D productivity needs to dramatically improve – and technology is a key part of this.”