
Exscientia is poised to acquire full control of its oral CDK7 inhibitor programme, GTAEXS617 (‘617), including all related intellectual property, by purchasing the share of its China-based partner, GT Apeiron Therapeutics.
The agreement stipulates that the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven pharmatech company will acquire complete rights to the intellectual property and take over the entire CDK7 inhibitor programme.
The financial terms include the Nasdaq-listed Exscientia paying GT Apeiron Therapeutics $10m upfront in cash, an additional $10m in equity, and assuming all existing development costs.
Additionally, Exscientia, which is based in the UK, will pay single-digit royalties on future commercialisation of ‘617 by either itself or a third party.
The decision to secure full control aligns with the upcoming Phase 1 dose escalation data readout of the CDK7 inhibitor.
The monotherapy dose escalation phase of the ELUCIDATE trial is currently evaluating the safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ‘617 in advanced solid tumours.
According to Exscientia, recruitment is progressing smoothly and results are expected in the second half of 2024.
The study will then move to a combination dose escalation phase in late 2024 or early 2025, initially focusing on HR+/HER2- breast cancer patients who have not responded to CDK4/6 inhibitors, testing ‘617 in conjunction with a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD).
Exscientia interim CEO and chief scientific officer David Hallett said: “We are excited to have full ownership of this potentially transformative asset.
“This underlines our confidence that we have not only used AI to design a potent and selective compound, but one that has balanced overall properties; these include a reversible mechanism of action and an appropriate human half-life to maximise the therapeutic index of this important cellular mechanism.
“CDK inhibitors are a major class of oncology drugs, and we believe our highly differentiated compound has the potential to greatly expand impact for patients and exemplifies our leadership in technology-driven drug design.”
The partnership between Exscientia and GT Apeiron Therapeutics began in July 2021. It focused on leveraging the former’s AI capabilities to expedite the discovery of targeted small molecule therapeutics for cancer and develop a pipeline of novel CDK therapies.
Under the original agreement, all pipeline products were jointly owned, and Exscientia held an equity stake in GT Apeiron Therapeutics.
Earlier this month, Exscientia expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to advance its advanced drug discovery and automation platform.