Apeiron Therapeutics, a Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company, has reached an agreement to sell all rights to its oral CDK7 inhibitor GTAEXS617 to Exscientia plc (NASDAQ: EXAI), a US-based AI-driven pharmaceutical company. The total transaction value amounts to USD 30 million, comprising an upfront cash payment of USD 10 million and a USD 10 million equity stake in Exscientia. Additionally, Exscientia will pay high single-digit royalties on future sales of GTAEXS617.
Exscientia will assume all research and development responsibilities for GTAEXS617, which is currently undergoing the Phase I/II ELUCIDATE study. The study is in the monotherapy dosage escalation phase and is anticipated to report results in the second half of this year. Following this, the drug is expected to enter a dosage escalation phase in combination with a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) for HR+/HER2 breast cancer patients who have progressed after CDK4/6 treatment. This phase is expected to commence by the end of this year or the beginning of next.
The collaboration between Exscientia and Apeiron began in 2021, leveraging Exscientia’s AI-driven drug identification and design expertise with Apeiron’s focus on cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) targeted molecules.- Flcube.com
