On August 13, 2021 Recursion (Nasdaq: RXRX), a clinical-stage biotechnology company decoding biology by integrating technological innovations across biology, chemistry, automation, data science, and engineering, reported financial results and business updates for its second quarter ending June 30, 2021 (Press release, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, AUG 13, 2021, View Source [SID1234586552]).

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"We are excited with how Recursion is expanding across many fronts in order to deliver on our mission to decode biology to radically improve lives," said Recursion Co-Founder & CEO Chris Gibson, PhD. "Not only is the company continuing to advance and expand the total number of its research and development programs, but we are expanding our operations to Canada to grow our capabilities and workforce and we are enhancing our expertise in research and development by forming a Therapeutics Advisory Board. Moreover, the company continues to build on its medicinal chemistry expertise, resulting in our first internally-developed new chemical entity being advanced to IND-enabling studies for potential treatment of C. difficile colitis."

Recursion finished the second quarter of 2021 with a portfolio of 4 clinical stage programs, 4 preclinical programs, 7 late discovery programs, and 33 early discovery programs, for a total of 48 research and development programs. Additionally, Recursion continued scaling the total number of executed phenomic experiments to over 82 million, the size of its proprietary data universe to approximately 9 petabytes, and the number of biological inferences to over 179 billion. Data have been generated across 37 human cell types, an in-house chemical library of over 706 thousand compounds, an in silico library of over 12 billion small molecules, and a growing team of more than 270 Recursionauts that is balanced between life scientists and computational and technical experts. The power of the Recursion OS is exemplified by the breadth of active research and development programs.

Summary of Business Highlights

Clinical Programs
Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) (REC-4881): We plan to initiate a Phase 2, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of REC-4881 in classical FAP patients within the next 3 to 4 quarters.
Cerebral cavernous malformation (REC-994): We plan to initiate a Phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled safety, tolerability and exploratory efficacy study of REC-994 in the next 3 to 4 quarters.
Neurofibromatosis type 2 (REC-2282): We plan to initiate a parallel group, two stage, Phase 2/3, randomized, multicenter study within the next 3 to 4 quarters.
GM2 gangliosidosis (REC-3599): We plan to initiate a Phase 2 trial in the next 3 to 4 quarters.
Notable Preclinical Programs
Clostridium difficile colitis (REC-3964): REC-3964 is an orally active, gut biased, small molecule C. difficile toxin B inhibitor, selected as Recursion’s first internally-developed new chemical entity (NCE) to advance to investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies.
Immune checkpoint resistance in STK11-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): The lead molecule has completed dose optimization studies and has advanced into pharmacodynamic studies in rodent NSCLC models of STK11-mediated checkpoint resistance.
Notable Late Discovery Programs
Cancer immunotherapy, target ‘alpha’: Undisclosed target ‘alpha’ was selected based on an inferential assessment of the strength of its relationship to known genes impacting immunotherapy response. A small molecule inhibitor of target alpha demonstrated robust single agent and combination activity with anti-PD1 in a CT26 model of immune checkpoint resistance, achieving 40% complete response in the combination arm.
Neuroinflammation: Multiple molecules from the lead chemical series demonstrated attenuated anti-inflammatory cytokine responses in a mouse pharmacodynamic model of neuroinflammation.
Oncology – small molecule MYC Inhibitors: Digital chemistry tools expanded multiple hit series with evidence of structure activity relationship. Multiple series are prioritized and undergoing optimization.
Batten disease: Multiple small molecule candidates are being evaluated in rodent pharmacodynamic models of Batten disease.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A (CMT2A): Multiple small molecule mechanistic classes will be assessed in a rodent model of CMT2A.
Bayer AG Partnership: We continue to make progress in our collaboration with Bayer to discover small molecule drug candidates with the potential to treat fibrotic diseases. In the collaboration’s first year we have developed novel disease models and successfully leveraged the Recursion Operating System, or Recursion OS, to identify numerous active molecules and promising chemical families.
Platform
PhenoMap Extensions: We began generating arrayed whole genome knockout and compound library PhenoMaps in two additional cell types. Additionally, we have made substantial progress in onboarding astrocytes as our first neuronal cell type.
Chemical Technology: Over the past quarter, we have incorporated additional virtual chemical library search methods into our digital chemistry tools and have begun reading out positive results from our first large-scale expansion searches for our NCE programs.
Orthogonomics: We have more than doubled the total number of genes and proteins measured in transcriptomic and proteomic experiments during the past quarter, leveraging these studies across multiple programs to discover new in vitro disease biomarkers that we may use to assess the efficacy of compounds.
Facilities and Manufacturing: We have two construction projects in progress to expand our current headquarters and create a chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) site in Salt Lake City. The expansion will allow us to improve our current platform by increasing capacity and automation, growing our compound and biobank libraries, further scaling proteomics and transcriptomics capabilities, and beginning the buildout of automated chemical compound microsynthesis. The CMC site will bolster our capabilities in analytical and formulation chemistry as well as small molecule manufacturing for early clinical trials for a subset of our key programs.
Expanding Operations to Canada: We announced our intention to launch our first major expansion beyond our Salt Lake City headquarters, with Toronto to serve as a multidisciplinary hub across data science, machine learning, engineering and computational biology. Additionally, we announced a multi-year collaboration with Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, to accelerate Recursion’s machine learning capabilities.
Second Quarter 2021 Financial Results

Cash Position: Cash and cash equivalents were $632.7 million as of June 30, 2021 and included net proceeds of $462.4 million from the company’s April 2021 initial public offering.
Revenue: Total revenue, consisting primarily of revenue from collaborative agreements, was $2.5 million for the second quarter of 2021, compared to $186 thousand for the second quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily due to progress in our collaboration with Bayer.
Research and Development Expenses: Research and development expenses were $29.6 million for the second quarter of 2021, compared to $13.2 million for the second quarter of 2020. The increase in research and development expenses was primarily due to an increased number of experiments run through the Recursion OS, an increased number of preclinical assets being validated, and increased clinical study-related costs.
General and Administrative Expenses: General and administrative expenses were $13.9 million for the second quarter of 2021, compared to $5.2 million for the second quarter of 2020. The increase in general and administrative expenses was due to growth in size of the company’s operations, including an increase in salaries and wages of $5.7 million, equipment costs, human resources-related costs, facilities costs, finance costs and other administrative costs associated with operating a high-growth company.
Net Loss: Net loss was $43.4 million for the second quarter of 2021, compared to a net loss of $18.9 million for the second quarter of 2020.
Other Corporate Updates

Therapeutics Advisory Board: A Therapeutics Advisory Board is being formed to advise Recursion’s executive team and Board of Directors regarding key research and development issues. The Therapeutics Advisory Board is chaired by Joseph Miletich, MD, PhD, who previously was Merck Research Laboratories’ Senior Vice President of Research Sciences and is currently Senior Scientific Advisor to Merck’s CEO.
Altitude Lab: Altitude Lab, a healthcare and life sciences incubator co-founded by Recursion in 2020, announced the launch of its Investor Coalition to fund, mentor, and provide resources for Altitude-incubated startups in Utah. The Investor Coalition aims to collectively invest $50 million in Altitude’s startups over the next three years.
Equity Index Inclusion: In Q2 2021, Recursion was added to a number of equity indices including the CRSP US Total Market, NASDAQ Composite, Russell 2000, Russell 3000, and S&P Total Market indices. These indices determine membership primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.