Exscientia expands Sanofi deal, eligible for $45M in milestones plus incentives

Exscientia (EXAI) announced that Sanofi (SNY) is adding a new discovery stage programme identified and initially advanced by Exscientia into the current collaboration. In this programme, Exscientia has designed a novel lead series with a potential best in class profile, with preliminary data showing good potency and selectivity towards the target and differentiated molecular properties. “Sanofi adding an Exscientia discovery stage programme into the collaboration speaks to the strengths of our AI-driven platform to solve complex drug discovery problems,” said Professor Andrew Hopkins FRS FMedSci, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Exscientia. “The growth of our collaboration is a testament to our strong relationship with Sanofi and our shared vision for AI-enabled drug discovery. As we enter 2024, we expect to continue working with partners to apply our platform capabilities across therapeutic areas while maintaining our internal pipeline focus on high value oncology targets.” Under the terms of the amended agreement, Exscientia is eligible for up to $45M in upfront and preclinical milestone payments. Exscientia will also be eligible for additional development, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments of over $300M and tiered royalties on product sales ranging from high-single-digits to mid-teens, as described in the original collaboration agreement. The upfront payment is expected to be reflected in the first quarter 2024 results for Exscientia as cash inflows from collaborations and recognised as revenue over the duration of the agreement.