Exscientia sees maintaining cash runway well into 2026

Exscientia provided Tuesday an update on its pipeline prioritisation strategy designed to further strengthen the Company’s focus, investment and infrastructure on programmes of greatest potential for differentiation and value creation, outlinging strategy which will support continued investment into market-leading technology while maintaining cash runway well into 2026.

Exscientia has built a highly efficient and versatile AI-led drug discovery platform. To date, its platform has yielded eight differentiated clinical development candidates across a variety of therapeutic areas, and at a pace that is substantially faster than current industry standards. The Company anticipates its capabilities will continue to grow, driven by recent investments in automation as well as other leading technological and scientific advancements which may further accelerate pipeline growth. In this context, the Company intends to prioritise its internal development efforts and focus its resources on the most differentiated, highest value oncology targets within its portfolio, such as LSD1 and CDK7. This strategic focus is designed to allow Exscientia to maximise its pipeline value and output while continuing to develop novel technologies to transform drug discovery and development. In addition, it will enhance operational and financial efficiency with a cash runway well into 2026.

Professor Andrew Hopkins,founder and Chief Executive Officer of Exscientia said that the company creates value by using technology to solve previously unsolved discovery challenges and achieving great data-driven operating efficiency. He pointed out that the company’s oncology programmes like LSD1 and CDK7 focus on well-understood development challenges where its platform can have a clear impact that, if successful, would lead to significant therapeutic benefit. “Beyond a focused number of high-value internal programmes in areas where we have deep expertise and strongdifferentiation, we believe the best way Exscientia can create an abundance of novel medicines for patients is by pairing our platform with strong partners in existing and future collaborations,” he said.

The company said in its press release it ended the second quarter of 2023 with $508.6 million of cash, equivalents and short-term deposits. With today’s announcement, the company expects to remain well capitalised through the potential achievement of multiple clinical and partnership milestones.

Potential programmes for partnering or out-licensing

EXS21546 (A2A):

The company said that, based on modelling of the clinical and preclinical data, it will be challenging for ‘546 to reach a suitable therapeutic index. The Phase 1/2 trial will be wound down and internal research around the target will be discontinued.

Exscientia said it believes in the A2A mechanism and its value for a potential partner with an existing immunotherapy pipeline. Exscientia said it will evaluate potential partnerships for its next-generation compounds and precision medicine capabilities.

Outltook

Exscientia said it intends to advance a small number of new candidates for internal clinical development that demonstrate clear differentiation and market need while also utilising Exscientia’s existing infrastructure. A majority of the future pipeline will be advanced through high-value partnerships or outlicensing