Exscientia plc (NASDAQ: EXAI) and Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) have inked a groundbreaking research partnership and license agreement to develop up to 15 novel small molecule candidates across oncology and immunology, utilizing Exscientia’s end-to-end AI-driven platform using actual patient samples.
The companies have been striving together since 2016 and in 2019, Sanofi in-licensed Exscientia’s novel bispecific small molecule candidate capable of targeting two distinctive targets in inflammation and immunology. Exscientia and Sanofi will partner to recognize and select target projects, taking advantage of Exscientia’s personalized medicine platform.
Financial Overview
As per the agreement, Exscientia will obtain an upfront cash payment of $100 million from Sanofi and will be entitled to get future research, translational, clinical development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments of up to nearly $5.2 billion in aggregate if all milestones for all programs are achieved.
Furthermore, Exscientia will be qualified for tiered royalties on product sales ranging from the high single digits to the mid-teens if Sanofi commercializes a therapeutic developed through the partnership, as well as the choice of clinical co-investment, which could boost the royalty rate up to 21% on net sales of co-funded products.
Moreover, the initial capital payment of $100 million is planned to be shown as cash inflows from partnerships in Exscientia's first quarter 2022 quarterly earnings and recognized as revenue during the agreement.