Frontier IP Group plc Exscientia partnership with GT Apeiron

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Frontier IP Group plc

14 June 2019

RNS Reach

AIM: FIPP

14 June 2019

Frontier IP Group Plc

("Frontier IP" or the "Group")

Portfolio news - Exscientia expands international collaborations with AI drug discovery partnership with GT Apeiron Therapeutics

Frontier IP, a specialist in commercialising university intellectual property, is pleased to note the following announcement from portfolio company Exscientia ("Exscientia" or the "Company"), a world leader in artificial intelligence ("AI") drug discovery, that it has entered into a drug-discovery partnership with GT Apeiron Therapeutics ("GT Apeiron").

GT Apeiron is a Shanghai-headquartered biotechnology drug-discovery platform launched with US$27 million backing from GT Healthcare Capital Partners ("GT Healthcare"), a life sciences-focused private equity partnership. GT Healthcare is also an investor in Exscientia.

As part of the agreement, Exscientia is entitled to become a shareholder in GT Apeiron as well as receiving milestones and royalties based on the clinical and commercial success of each programme.

GT Healthcare invested in Exscientia as part of a Series B financing round, which raised US$26 million to scale up the Company's pipeline and advance selected programmes towards clinical development. Further details were announced by Frontier IP on 7 January 2019.

Exscientia's existing partnerships include collaborations with Celgene, GSK, Roche, Sanofi and Evotec.

Frontier IP holds a 3.32 per cent stake in the Company.

Exscientia statement in full:

EXSCIENTIA EXPANDS INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS WITH SHANGHAI-HEADQUARTERED GT APEIRON THERAPEUTICS

FIRM ENTERS A MULTI-TARGET AI DRUG DISCOVERY PARTNERSHIP WITH INITIAL FOCUS ON ONCOLOGY

Oxford, UK, June 2019: Exscientia, a world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery company, announced today that it has entered an AI drug discovery partnership with Shanghai-headquartered GT Apeiron Therapeutics ("GT Apeiron").

The collaboration will use Exscientia's full-stack AI drug discovery capabilities and GT Apeiron's proprietary technologies to accelerate the development of novel drugs via new pathways to tackle high impact therapeutic targets with an initial focus on oncology.

As part of the agreement, Exscientia is entitled to become a shareholder in GT Apeiron as well as receiving milestones and royalties based on the clinical, regulatory and commercial success of each programme. GT Apeiron was launched by GT Healthcare Capital Partners, a life science-focused private equity partnership, with $27 million financial backing.

Exscientia will use its cutting-edge Centaur Chemist(TM) AI drug discovery platform, which has demonstrated its unparalleled capability to deliver novel drug candidates with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Taking advantage of China's investment in the pharmaceutical space and using AI to improve the speed of discovery of new treatments for patients both in China and globally are key goals of this collaboration.

Exscientia's existing partnerships include collaborations with Celgene, Roche, GSK, Sanofi and Evotec, cementing Exscientia's international reputation as a leader in the rapidly developing field of AI-driven drug discovery.

For Exscientia, this partnership is an opportunity to continue its global expansion and replicate its success in China. The partnership comes just a few months after Exscientia announced the opening of its Osaka office, strengthening its footprint in Asia.

Professor Andrew Hopkins, Exscientia's CEO, commented: "This is an exciting time for pharmaceutical research, with innovative approaches to drug discovery as well as the development of new commercial markets. Both are strongly evident in China, already the second largest national pharmaceutical market in the world, where we are delighted to join our expertise and technology with GT Apeiron to initiate our first discovery opportunity in the country. The medicines we generate by applying our AI platform and GT Apeiron's experimental expertise will focus on areas of significant unmet need with global potential."

Dr. Mingxi Li, board member of GT Apeiron said: "We are delighted to partner with the world leading AI-driven drug discovery company who will also become a shareholder of GT Apeiron. We believe the joint effort will significantly improve drug R&D productivity to benefit patients."

Exscientia statement ends

ENQUIRIES

 
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  Andrew Johnson, Communications & Investor       M: 07464 546 025 
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   Exscientia Limited 
   Corporate enquiries: 
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NOTES FOR EDITORS

About Exscientia

Exscientia is at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven drug discovery and design. By fusing the power of AI with the discovery experience of seasoned drug hunters, Exscientia is the first company to automate drug design, surpassing conventional approaches.

Exscientia's innovative Centaur Chemist(TM) platform enables breakthrough productivity gains as well as new approaches to improve drug efficacy. Novel compounds are automatically designed and prioritised for synthesis by its AI systems, which rapidly evolve compounds towards the desired candidate criteria for clinical development.

Exscientia systems learn from both existing data resources and experimental data from each design cycle. The principle is similar to how a human would learn, but the AI process is far more effective at identifying and assimilating multiple subtle and complex trends to balance potency, selectivity and pharmacokinetic criteria. As a result, the AI-driven process is more likely to achieve the end goal and to do this more rapidly and efficiently than traditional human endeavour.

Exscientia is collaborating with several leading pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, including Celgene, GSK, Sanofi, Roche and Evotec.

Exscientia has its headquarters in Oxford, UK with offices in the UK, USA and Japan. For more information visit us on www.exscientia.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @exscientialtd

ABOUT GT APEIRON THERAPEUTICS

GT Apeiron Therapeutics was launched in 2019 by GT Healthcare Capital Partners. It is a Shanghai-headquartered biotechnology platform utilizing state-of-the-art technologies for drug discovery.

ABOUT GT HEALTHCARE CAPITAL PARTNERS

GT Healthcare Capital Partners is an Asia-based private equity firm that specializes in life science investments around the globe that aim to benefit patients. GT Healthcare aims to provide capital and scale expertise to healthcare businesses in Asia / Greater China.

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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June 14, 2019 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)