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a) Raising multi-million investment in, and revenue from, AI-guided drug design

Exscientia has rapidly-grown into a leading pharmatech company at the forefront of AI drug discovery. Since 2017, Exscientia has raised a total of GBP84 million, comprising:

• Series A EUR15 million in 2017 [E1]

• Series B USD26 million in 2019 [E2]

• Series C USD70 million in 2020 [E3]

(including USD10 million raised after the announcement).

Evotec, one of four investors, said of Series A in 2017:

“Our investment in Exscientia represents Evotec’s single biggest equity placement to date and in, what we feel, is the world leading AI technology company” [E1].

Exscientia’s revenue rose from GBP1.5 million in 2018 to GBP9.8 million in 2020, with GBP23.0 million total revenue since 2016 [E4]. This enabled Exscientia to expand from its initial space in Dundee, to a second office in Oxford (2017), then into larger premises on the Oxford Science Park (2018). Recently (2019/2020), offices opened in Osaka (Japan) and Miami (USA). In the REF period, expansion increased the workforce from 3 to 91 staff [E4] by creating 88 highly-skilled new jobs (headcount: 88; FTEs: 88) with staff numbers doubling each year for the past 3 years (Figure).

b) Innovation and partnership with Pharma to accelerate drug discovery using AI

In addition to its own pipeline, Exscientia provides services to pharmaceutical companies where its automated AI drug design process can accelerate development of candidates for clinical trial.

These services have attracted 18 partnerships on 28 separate projects, developing drugs or technology for a range of diseases, including cancer, COVID-19, psychiatric disease, bone disease, fibrosis and others [E4]. Many collaborations are with global Pharma companies with revenue generated through initial upfront and research payments, near-term and clinical milestone payments, and royalties on final products. Examples of such deals include: Bayer (2019; EUR240 million), Roche (2019; CHF67 million), Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb (2019; USD25 million upfront, with undisclosed milestones), GlaxoSmithKline (2017; GBP33 million), Sanofi (2017, EUR250 million), Sunovion (2014; total USD4.8 million) [E4]. Partnerships also exist with GT Apeiron, Evotec, SRI, RallyBio, Blue Oak, Huadong Medicine, IMI CARE, Diamond Light Source/Calibr, Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, and the Gates Foundation [E4]. Twelve patents were filed or published on Exscientia molecules/methods in the REF period [E4].

c) Significant efficiency and cost savings compared to conventional drug discovery

Published industry benchmarks estimate it takes 4.5 years and USD63 million to get to pre-clinical testing of a drug candidate. In 2014, Exscientia signed a partnership with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Ltd and one year later delivered a molecule meeting Sumitomo criteria [E5]. Fewer than 400 compounds needed to be synthesized to identify the final compound using Exscientia’s automated system, saving over 80% costs in these drug discovery stages, or 30% of the total drug development cost [E4, E6]. The Director of Sumitomo’s chemistry team said:

“Working with Exscientia has been transformative, enabling us to progress projects far faster than had previously been possible”, and their Director of Drug Development added, “... projects by ex scientia are providing exciting productivity and efficiency gains…” [E5].

In 2019, Exscientia provided GlaxoSmithKline with a first selective, potent in vivo, lead molecule, discovered in 5 iterative cycles with only 85 compounds tested [E7] in comparison with industry benchmarks of 2,500 per project. Also in 2019, Sanofi exercised its option to advance a compound from their 2017 partnership where Exscientia designed bispecific-binding molecules after triaging >1,000 disease-relevant target combinations and designing nearly 100 billion novel compounds. The first-in-class bispecific molecule being progressed by Sanofi interacts with two drug targets related to inflammation and fibrosis - normally needing two separate drugs [E8].

These achievements highlight the efficiency and productivity gains made possible through Exscientia’s algorithms. Their current pipeline has 12 drug discovery projects [E4], and 5 new drug candidates have been delivered in under 14 months, far quicker than the 4.5 to 5-year industry benchmark and with associated cost savings [E7]. Evotec confirm:

“Through our partnership with Exscientia we have seen first-hand evidence that they can deliver the most productive drug discovery engine in the industry” [E2].

d) Fastest AI-designed drugs to accelerated IP filing and first-in-human clinical trials

Exscientia has been the fastest AI-design drug developer in the world to reach the clinic, enabling accelerated IP filing. In January 2020, though partnership with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Ltd, Exscientia delivered into Phase 1 clinical trials the first AI-designed drug ever to be tested in humans [E9]. The drug, in trial in Japan, treats patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, enabling Sumitomo to expand its pipeline to treat key unmet needs in psychiatry/neurology. Sumitomo’s Senior Executive Officer said:

“We are very excited with the results of the joint research that resulted in the development of candidate compounds in a very short time…” [E9].

An Exscientia-proprietary AI-designed drug targeting cancer is also in Phase I first-in-human clinical trial, enrolling its first participant in December 2020 [E9]. Exscientia and Hopkins have received numerous accolades (collated in E10) and their leading position in the sector is confirmed by many:

GSK say “ Exscientia has… proven innovation in drug discovery technologies…their industry-leading approach will accelerate the discovery of new molecules” [E4];

Forbes list Exscientia as a “ leading AI drug discovery startup” for possible acquisition by Big Pharma for over USD2 billion in the near future [E10];

Evotec say “[Exscientia’s] AI approaches…can positively and radically impact drug discovery” [E1].