Frontier IP Group plc Exscientia announces major GSK collaboration (8421J)
July 03 2017 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMFIPP
RNS Number : 8421J
Frontier IP Group plc
03 July 2017
RNS
AIM: FIPP
3 July 2017
Frontier IP Group Plc
("Frontier IP" or the "Group")
Portfolio news
Frontier IP, which specialises in the commercialisation of
intellectual property, is pleased to announce that its portfolio
company Exscientia Limited ("Exscientia") yesterday announced that
it has entered into a strategic drug discovery collaboration with
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The text of the announcement made by Exscientia is set out
below:
"2 July 2017, Dundee, UK
Exscientia Enters Strategic Drug Discovery Collaboration with
GSK
Pre-clinical collaboration focused on up to 10 targets nominated
by GSK
Exscientia, an innovative company at the forefront of Artificial
Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery, is pleased to announce it
has entered into a strategic drug discovery collaboration with
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). During this collaboration, Exscientia will
apply its AI enabled platform and combine this with the expertise
of GSK, in order to discover novel and selective small molecules
for up to 10 disease-related targets, nominated by GSK across
multiple therapeutic areas.
Exscientia will receive research payments from GSK to undertake
new discovery programmes with nominated targets with the goal of
delivering pre-clinical candidates. In addition to research
funding, Exscientia is eligible to receive near-term lead and
pre-clinical candidate milestones if all objectives are achieved.
The total amount payable by GSK to Exscientia on achieving these
milestones is GBP33 million, if all 10 projects are advanced. No
further financial details have been disclosed.
Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, said:"This agreement with GSK
is the second we have signed in recent months with a top global
pharma company. The alliance provides further validation of our
AI-driven platform and its potential to accelerate the discovery of
novel, high-quality drug candidates. Applying our approach to
client discovery projects has already delivered candidate-quality
molecules in roughly one-quarter of the time, and at one-quarter of
the cost of traditional approaches. Our intention therefore is to
apply these capabilities to projects selected by GSK. Delivering
efficiencies to drug discovery has the potential to revolutionise
the way early projects are executed, enabling more dynamic target
selections from the burgeoning set of opportunities. We look
forward to a productive collaboration with GSK."
John Baldoni, Senior Vice President, Platform Science and
Technology at GSK, added: "Exscientia has built an excellent team
with proven innovation in drug discovery technologies. We
anticipate that their industry-leading approach will accelerate the
discovery of new molecules against high value GSK targets with
speed and confidence, and without compromising quality."
As part of this collaboration, Exscientia is incentivised to
reduce the number of compounds required for synthesis and assay in
order to achieve lead and candidate compound goals. This is in
response to observations that early stages of drug discovery have
not been positively impacted by technologies that have delivered
significant efficiencies to other fields. Exscientia will apply
both its 'Big Data' resources comprising, among other things,
medicinal chemistry and large-scale bio-assays, and its AI-driven
algorithms to design novel molecules that fulfil the requirements
of the lead and candidate criteria."
Ends
For further information:
Frontier IP Group Plc T: 0131 240 1251
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive
Company website: www.frontierip.co.uk
Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated T: 0131 220 6939
Adviser and Joint Broker)
Neil McDonald / Beth McKiernan
Peterhouse Corporate Finance T: 020 7469 0935
Limited (Joint Broker)
Lucy Williams
Kreab (Financial PR) T: 020 7074 1800
Robert Speed / Matthew Jervois
Notes to Editor:
About Frontier IP Group plc
www.frontierip.co.uk.
Frontier IP specialises in assisting institutions and companies
in the commercialisation and exploitation of their intellectual
property. It establishes formal and informal relationships with
sources of exploitable IP, principally universities. Its core
business is building and growing a portfolio of equity stakes in
spin-out companies by taking an active involvement in the
commercialisation and funding of these businesses.
About Exscientia
www.exscientia.co.uk
Exscientia is at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence
(AI)-driven drug discovery and design. By fusing the power of AI
with the discovery experience of seasoned drug hunters, we are the
first company to automate drug design, surpassing conventional
approaches. Our innovative platform enables breakthrough
productivity gains as well as new approaches to improve drug
efficacy.
Novel compounds prioritised for synthesis by Exscientia's AI
systems simultaneously balance potency, selectivity and
pharmacokinetic criteria in order to deliver successful
experimental outcomes. By applying a rapid design-make-test cycle,
the Exscientia AI system actively learns from the preceding
experimental results and rapidly evolves compounds towards the
desired candidate criteria.
Exscientia first developed their platform to design efficacious,
selective single-target compounds, whilst further innovation now
allows the same platform to design small molecules with dual
pharmacology, as well as more complex target product profiles
guided by high content phenotypic data.
Exscientia is now collaborating with several leading
pharmaceutical companies. Current partners include Evotec
(immuno-oncology), Sanofi (metabolic disease), Sumitomo Dainippon
Pharma and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals (CNS) and GSK.
Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/exscientialtd
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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