TIDMFIPP
Frontier IP Group plc
08 September 2021
Reach - a non-regulatory announcement
AIM: FIPP
08 September 2021
Frontier IP Group Plc
("Frontier IP" or the "Group")
Portfolio news - Exscientia enters $70M collaboration to develop
anti-viral therapeutics against Coronavirus and other viruses with
pandemic potential
Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising intellectual
property, notes today's announcement below from portfolio company
Exscientia concerning a $70 million collaboration with the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation to develop anti-viral therapeutics
against Coronavirus and other viruses with pandemic potential.
Exscientia statement begins:
Exscientia enters $70M collaboration to develop anti-viral
therapeutics against Coronavirus and other viruses with pandemic
potential
-- Four-year agreement with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
to discover and develop small molecule therapeutics with less
susceptibility to variants and greater patient access than current
approaches
-- Exscientia to use leading AI platform and in-house drug
expertise to discover and develop five phase 1-ready assets; Gates
Foundation to contribute sector expertise in antivirals and global
public health
-- Investment accelerates Exscientia's Mpro Coronavirus small molecule therapeutics project
Exscientia, an AI-driven pharmatech company with a mission to
radically improve how drugs are discovered, today announced a
four-year collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, a non-profit focused on fighting global poverty,
disease, and inequity, to develop small molecule therapeutics that
tackle the current Coronavirus pandemic and help prepare for future
pandemics. The collaboration will initially focus on developing
broad-spectrum Coronavirus agents (e.g., SARS-CoV-2 and its
variants, MERS), including accelerating Exscientia's lead program,
which targets the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus
responsible for COVID-19. Subsequently, the collaboration will
expand to develop therapeutics for influenza and Paramyxoviridae
(e.g., Nipah), with the potential to develop additional programs as
identified by the joint team.
Exscientia's AI-driven platform enables scientific concepts to
be rapidly translated into precision-designed therapeutic
candidates, with a goal of increasing probability of success and an
accelerated path to the patient.
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores the urgency to
develop safe and effective broad-spectrum drugs to expand our
armoury against viruses and their variants. We need to fight
today's pandemic but also ensure we are prepared with new drugs to
combat viruses with future pandemic potential. We are honoured to
work alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance
this mission by ensuring accessibility and affordability of these
therapeutics globally," commented Andrew Hopkins, Chief Executive
Officer of Exscientia. "We believe that our AI-driven platform can
accelerate the creation of better, more effective therapeutics that
can address some of the world's most critical and emerging health
risks."
"Small molecule therapeutics could provide a superior approach
to guard global health," said Denise Barrault, Director of
Portfolio Management at Exscientia. "Certain targets are prevalent
across families of viruses, meaning that potent therapeutics could
be broadly effective across multiple virus families. Further, this
collaboration will focus on evaluating protein targets that are
evolutionarily conserved and are less likely to develop
resistance."
The Gates Foundation's program-related investment in Exscientia
was made through its Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), a team that
uses a suite of financial tools to address market failures and
incentivise private enterprise to develop affordable and accessible
products and services for low-income populations. SIF investments
are intended to further the Gates Foundation's programmatic goals,
not to generate financial returns. If any profit is generated by an
investment, it will be used solely for charitable purposes through
Gates Foundation philanthropic programs.
Under the terms of the agreement, Exscientia will receive a $35
million equity investment from the SIF, with the potential for
additional grant funding to help advance development candidates
through commercialisation. The Gates Foundation's program-related
investment is subject to certain closing conditions being
satisfied. As a global leader in pandemic preparedness, the Gates
Foundation will also contribute its extensive expertise in funding
the design, development, and distribution of antiviral drugs.
Exscientia will lead the initial antiviral projects and apply its
platform technology to research, discover, and develop up to five
Phase 1-ready small molecule therapeutics for future pandemic
preparedness. Exscientia will provide $35 million in matching
contributions, through operations and funding for third party
activities. Exscientia maintains worldwide rights to all developed
products with a commitment to make the anti-viral products
affordable and accessible to people in developing countries.
In July, Exscientia received a grant from the Gates Foundation
to expedite the optimization of a new class of COVID-19
therapeutics created using its AI drug design platform, focused on
a novel class of inhibitors targeting the SARS-CoV-2's main
protease enzyme, Mpro, the causative agent of COVID-19. This work
will continue under the collaboration announced today.
Additionally, in 2020, the foundation awarded a $4.2 million grant
to Exscientia to identify new innovative treatments for malaria and
tuberculosis - two of the world's leading infectious disease
killers - as well as new medicines for non-hormonal
contraception.
Exscientia statement ends
ENQUIRIES
Frontier IP Group Plc T: 020 7332 2338
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive neil@frontierip.co.uk
Andrew Johnson, Communications & Investor M: 07464 546 025
Relations
andrew.johnson@frontierip.co.uk
Company website: www.frontierip.co.uk
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser) T: 0203 328 5656
Nick Athanas / George Payne
Exscientia
Amanda Galgay media@exscientia.ai
Edelman Public Relations
Edelman PR (UK)
Nathan Field T: + 44(0) 7866 411
198
nathan.field@edelman.com
Edelman PR (US)
Amanda Lazaro
amanda.lazaro@edelman.com
ABoUT EXscientia
Exscientia is an AI-driven pharmatech company committed to
discovering, designing, and developing the best possible drugs in
the fastest and most effective manner. Exscientia is the first
company to progress AI-designed small molecules into the clinical
setting and repeatedly demonstrate the ability of AI to transform
how drug candidates are created. Exscientia's AI platform has now
designed three drugs that are in Phase 1 human clinical trials.
Drug design is precision engineering at the molecular scale.
Exscientia has built dedicated AI systems that efficiently learn
from the widest range of data and consistently reapply enhanced
knowledge through iterations of design. Because Exscientia's AI
platform learns more effectively and rapidly than human-led efforts
alone, candidate molecules satisfying complex therapeutic
requirements are created with revolutionary efficiency. Exscientia
believes that designing better drugs, faster, will allow the best
ideas of science to rapidly become the best medicines for
patients.
Exscientia has offices in Oxford, Vienna, Dundee, Miami and
Osaka. For more information visit us at https://www.exscientia.ai
or follow us on Twitter @exscientiaAI.
ABOUT FRONTIER IP
Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong
intellectual property and accelerating its development through a
range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group's
work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of
development to ensure technology meets real world demands and
needs.
The Group looks to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes
and licence income by taking an active involvement in spin-out
companies, including support for fund raising and collaboration
with relevant industry partners at an early stage of
development.
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