Celgene and Evotec have put capital into Exscientia as the Dundee-founded automated drug discovery services provider added Roche to its roster of development partners.
Exscientia, a UK-based drug discovery technology spinout of University of Dundee, received $26m yesterday in a series B round backed by pharmaceutical developer Celgene and drug developer Evotec.
The deal also includes funding from venture firm GT Healthcare Capital Partners. Commercialisation firm Frontier IP, an existing investor in Exscientia, owns a 3.3% stake in the spinout following the transaction.
Founded in 2012, Exscientia has devised an automated drug discovery technology that applies artificial intelligence (AI) to understandings gained from historic datasets in addition to experimental information amassed during drug design programs. The company’s services include the AI discovery system Centaur Chemist.
In addition to the series B funding, Exscientia has announced an up to Sfr67m ($68m) collaboration agreement with pharmaceutical firm Roche enabling the corporate to access Centaur Chemist for its pre-clinical drug discovery campaign.
Under the agreement, Roche will keep exclusive rights to develop and market assets resulting from its use of Centaur Chemist, while Exscientia will be entitled to royalties on any eventual sales.
Exscientia already has partnerships in place with drug developers including Evotec, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi.
The series B funding will help Exscientia enhance its underlying technology to support the build-out of its drug development pipeline with both in-house and collaborative programs by the end of 2019.
Exscientia will advance its most advanced projects towards the clinic, with the aim of preparing its first therapeutic candidates for investigational new drug status within the next year.
Evotec previously put $17.7m of funding into Exscientia in September 2017. In November 2018, Escientia acquired fellow Dundee spinout Kinetic Discovery’s biophysics information services business for an undisclosed sum.
Neil Crabb, chief executive of Frontier IP, 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.”
