On August 17, 2022 Exscientia plc (Nasdaq: EXAI) reported that Recent developments in the Company’s pipeline, collaborations, and operations, as well as financial results for the second quarter and first half 2022, are summarised below (Press release, Exscientia, AUG 17, 2022, View Source [SID1234618455]). In addition, Exscientia will host a conference call Thursday, August 18 at 1:30 p.m. BST / 8:30 a.m. ET to provide an overview of the company’s pipeline and corporate strategy.
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"In the first half of 2022, we delivered on major new and existing collaborations, advanced our pipeline programmes, and marked the 10-year anniversary of Exscientia’s founding. Over the past decade, we’ve pioneered an AI-driven approach to modernising drug discovery and development, and it was fitting that this quarter we also announced topline data from our EXS-21546 programme, one of the first AI-designed molecules to enter clinical trials," said Andrew Hopkins, D.Phil., Exscientia’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. "With over $730 million in cash, we believe we are in a strong position to deliver across our portfolio of drug projects for the long-term. Our strategy creates an agile interplay between our internal pipeline and partnered programmes, enabling us to move candidates between the two depending on the best fit for Exscientia and our partners, as well as how we can best impact the probability of success for patients."
Recent Highlights
Progress across internal and partnered pipeline, leveraging the Company’s precision medicine platform, as well as key components of Exscientia’s technology and operations.
Internal pipeline
Wholly, majority and co-owned programmes focused on areas in which Exscientia believes it can improve the probability of success, including precision oncology
Following topline data in June, the Company remains on track to initiate a Phase 1b/2 study of EXS-21546 (majority owned with Evotec) in the second half of 2022
Phase 1b/2 study will be optimised with simulation-guided clinical trial design principles as well as leverage Exscientia’s precision medicine platform to maximise potential impact to the most relevant patients
GTAEXS-617 (co-owned with GT Apeiron) CTA submission expected by year-end 2022
CTA and IND-enabling studies are ongoing, including translational work to support planned clinical trials expected to start in the first half of 2023
Partnered programmes
Utilising a scalable end-to-end platform to advance a broad pipeline, while also generating significant cash inflows to support advancements
First two targets identified in new Sanofi collaboration for oncology and inflammation & immunity, respectively
First precision medicine project initiated; focused on patient enrichment for a Sanofi biologic in oncology
Advancing Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) collaboration with continued progress across both BMS1 and BMS2 collaborations
Following the achievement of recent successful drug discovery milestone, Exscientia and Bayer have mutually agreed to end collaboration; Exscientia will retain optionality to develop one of the two targets pursued under the collaboration
The Bayer agreement was the last Exscientia partnership based on AI-only design services, which included lower economics and reduced operational involvement in comparison with more recent partnerships
This update aligns with Company strategy to increasingly focus on programmes where Exscientia’s AI design, experimental biology and precision medicine platforms can be integrated
Recent clinical progress highlights ability of the Company’s advanced, AI-based platform to create novel molecules with high level of translatability to human biology
Announced topline data from EXS-21546 Phase 1a healthy volunteer study in June 2022
The study demonstrated that observed human pharmacokinetics for EXS-21546 were in line with what had been designed for and predicted in preclinical modelling, supporting a twice-daily (BID) dose for continuous A2A receptor inhibition over a dosing interval
EXS-21546 signalled inhibition of A2A receptor was sustained over the BID dosing period, demonstrating a level of lasting target engagement
EXS-21546 was well-tolerated with no CNS adverse events reported in the SAD portion at all doses (30mg, 90mg, 250mg, 400mg) and in the MAD portion at 150mg BID
Exscientia’s approach allows for significant cash inflows to drive the business
$111.0 million cash flow from collaborations in second quarter 2022, including $100.0 million from Sanofi, ending the first half 2022 with $732.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term bank deposits
Includes constant currency mark-to-market foreign exchange impact of negative 8%
During the quarter, Exscientia recognised realised foreign exchange gains net of forward contract settlements of $14.0 million. The Company holds its deposits in both GBP and USD intended to match expected cash needs while limiting the impact of exchange rate fluctuations
Second quarter 2022 net positive cash inflows from operations of $72.9 million
Expanded leadership team in critical growth areas
Eileen Jennings-Brown joined as Exscientia’s Chief Information Officer, reporting to Garry Pairaudeau, Chief Technology Officer, and responsible for overseeing IT and DevOps. Ms. Jennings-Brown brings more than 25 years of experience across IT roles, including most recently heading technology for the Wellcome Trust.
Charlotte Deane, Ph.D., Chief Scientist of Biologics AI, who joined Exscientia in January 2022, was awarded an appointment to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for leading the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response call for projects addressing issues arising from the pandemic.
Select peer-reviewed publications and scientific meeting presentations during the quarter
"Coverage Score: A Model Agnostic Method to Efficiently Explore Chemical Space," was published in the Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling in July 2022. This advancement in active learning allows more efficient exploration of chemical space, potentially leading to increased diversity of candidates, faster model improvement and shorter time to candidate identification
"Surface Plasmon Resonance Screening to Identify Active and Selective Adenosine Receptor Binding Fragments," a study which further validates Exscientia’s innovative biosensor approach to screening wildtype GPCR targets to advance drug discovery, was published in the ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters in June 2022
Three posters presented at the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting in April, highlighting Exscientia’s human tissue precision medicine platform, including potential benefits of Exscientia’s AI-driven design to overcome known issues such as potency, toxicity and selectivity and improve patient outcomes
Investor call and webcast information
Exscientia will host a conference call on Thursday, August 18 at 1:30 p.m. BST / 8:30 a.m. ET. A webcast of the live call can be accessed by visiting the "Investors and Media" section of the Company’s website at investors.exscientia.ai. Alternatively, the live conference call can be accessed by dialling +1 (888) 330 3292 (U.S.), +44 203 433 3846 (U.K.), +1 (646) 960 0857 (International) and entering the conference ID: 8333895. A replay will be available for 90 days under "Events and Presentations" in the "Investors and Media" section of the Exscientia website.
Second quarter and first half 2022 financial results
For the convenience of the reader, the Company has translated pound sterling amounts to U.S. dollars at the rate of £1.000 to $1.2162, which was the noon buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on June 30, 2022.
Revenue: Recognised revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, was $8.7 million and $17.2 million respectively, representing an increase of $8.3 million and $10.4 million compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, primarily due to delivery on an increased number of projects across our second collaboration with BMS, revenues generated from the extension of the BMS agreement to leverage Exscientia’s precision medicine platform, and recognition of remaining revenues following the termination of the Bayer agreement.
R&D and cost of drug discovery: Due to various collaboration structures, expenditure incurred in relation to research and development activities may be recognised within one of several financial statement captions. The tables below show how these expenses are separated across the accounting categories.
Research and development expenses: R&D expenses for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, were $40.2 million and $68.8 million respectively, as compared to $9.9 million and $15.1 million for the same period ended June 30, 2021. The increase in research and development expenses was in part due to the growth of Exscientia’s internal and co-owned portfolio, in addition to increased headcount and other costs associated with the Company’s continued technology investments. Share-based compensation accounted for $9.1 million and $12.1 million for the quarter and half year ended June 30, 2022, as compared to $1.6 million and $1.9 million for the same period ended June 30, 2021.
General and administrative expenses: G&A expenses for the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, were $14.7 million and $24.2 million respectively, or 22.3% and 21.9% respectively of total operating expenses. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, G&A expenses increased by $5.6 million and $11.1 million compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, primarily associated with an increase in personnel costs and additional costs incurred in relation to the operation of a listed company. Share-based compensation accounted for $3.3 million and $4.6 million for the quarter and half year ended June 30, 2022, as compared to $1.7 million and $2.0 million for the same periods ended June 30, 2021.
Cash inflows: For the second quarter 2022, Exscientia received $111.0 million in cash inflows from its collaborations as compared to $39.5 million during the second quarter 2021.
Cash, cash equivalents and bank deposits: Cash, cash equivalents and bank deposits as of June 30, 2022, were $732.0 million as compared to $683.7 million as of December 31, 2022. This includes a 12-month fixed term deposit of $121.7 million.