Sanofi and Exscientia have been collaborating since 2016, they recently signed a license and research collaboration agreement to develop up to 15 novel small molecule candidates in oncology and immunology. Exscientia’s fully integrated artificial intelligence (AI) platform will use patient biological samples. As part of the agreement, Sanofi will pay Exscientia an upfront payment of €88 million followed by milestone payments that could increase the agreement to €4.6 billion.
Drug development is very time-consuming and expensive, artificial intelligence can make the process faster, cheaper and more efficient. It facilitates the selection of patients for clinical trials, the search for active molecules for a given target and accelerates the analysis of biomedical information. The use of databases for drug discovery is not new, but now it only takes enough data to train AI to identify new leads.
Sanofi-Exscientia research collaboration
To stay competitive in a rapidly changing environment, pharmaceutical companies are forced to enter into agreements. For example, Sanofi, France’s leading pharmaceutical company, has announced a research agreement with Exscientia, the British specialist in drug design using artificial intelligence, to develop oncology and immunology treatments. Alban de la Sablière, head of partnerships at Sanofi explains:
“We are constantly looking for game-changing medicines. Our goal is transformation – to build the healthcare of tomorrow, with partners who strive to bring innovation to patients around the world.
Founded in 2012 in Oxford, UK, Exscientia was one of the first companies to apply AI technology to drug discovery. Its goal is to rapidly identify and optimize drug candidates that are more likely to succeed in clinical trials than those selected by conventional means.
Its medical platform enables a “patient-first” approach by integrating primary human tissue samples into early target research and drug discovery. Through it, Exscientia and Sanofi will collaborate to identify and select potential targets. In addition to target discovery, Exscientia will lead the design of small molecule therapeutics and the optimization of lead candidates through to eventual development. Sanofi will be responsible for preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing and commercialization. Frank Nestle, Global Head of Research and Chief Scientific Officer of Sanofi said:
“We look forward to deepening our collaboration with Exscientia, a leading company specializing in artificial intelligence and its application to modernize all aspects of drug discovery and development. Sanofi’s collaboration with Exscientia is designed to transform the way we research and develop new small molecules for cancer and immune diseases. The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will not only shorten R&D timelines, but will also lead to better targeted and higher quality drugs for patients.”
Andrew Hopkins, CEO and founder of Exscienta adds:
“We are excited about this collaboration with Sanofi whose goal is to realize the full potential of AI to design and produce a new generation of drugs for cancer and immunological diseases. Our AI platform can be leveraged for drug discovery, translational research and development, with applications ranging from improving precision medicine and the quality of drug candidates to the most accurate selection of patients for clinical trials. Our recently established extended collaboration with Sanofi will use our platform to test AI-enabled drug candidates in patient tissue models, which could yield much more accurate data than traditional methods, such as mouse models. The ability to test drug candidates on human biological samples years in advance of conducting clinical trials represents a profound change that is truly transforming research and development.”
Exscientia will receive an upfront payment of €88 million from Sanofi. If all the milestones of all the programs materialize (translational milestones, clinical research and development, regulatory and commercial milestones), Exscientia could then receive up to €4.6 billion. If Sanofi commercializes a drug resulting from this collaboration, it will pay a profit to Exscientia.
Translated from SANOFI part à la découverte de nouveaux médicaments grâce à l’IA de EXSCIENTIA
