Allen & Overy has advised Exscientia on its USD 5.2 billion strategic research collaboration with Sanofi to develop an AI-driven pipeline of precision-engineered medicines

Sanofi and Exscientia announced today a ground breaking research collaboration and licence agreement to develop up to 15 novel small molecule candidates across oncology and immunology, leveraging Exscientia’s end-to-end AI-driven platform utilising actual patient samples.

 Exscientia and Sanofi will collaborate to identify and select target projects, leveraging Exscientia’s personalised medicine platform. The platform enables a “patient-first” approach through integrating primary human tissue samples into early target and drug discovery research. By doing so, Exscientia scientists can integrate patient, disease and clinically relevant data into decisions on potential new medicine candidates earlier in the drug creation process. In addition to target discovery, Exscientia will lead small molecule drug design and lead optimisation activities up to development candidate nomination, with Sanofi taking responsibility for further development, manufacturing and commercialisation.

 Under the terms of the agreement, Exscientia will receive an upfront cash payment of USD 100 million from Sanofi and will be eligible to receive future translational, clinical development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to approximately USD 5.2 billion in aggregate. If Sanofi commercialises a therapeutic from the collaboration, Exscientia will also be eligible to receive tiered royalties on product sales.

 The A&O team was led by London-based partner and global co-head of Life Sciences, Jim Ford, with IP/commercial associate Megan McMellon.