German group Merck has announced two new drug discovery collaborations with BenevolentAI and Exscientia to harness artificial intelligence (AI)-driven design and discovery capabilities to accelerate drug discovery.

The partnerships are expected to generate several new clinical development drug candidates in key therapeutic areas of oncology, neurology and immunology.

Under the terms of the agreements, three potential targets have been selected to initiate each partnership, with the potential of identifying and nominating additional targets in the future.

The collaborations will focus on advancing small-molecule development candidates, which Merck will select for further preclinical and clinical development.

As part of the agreements, both UK-based companies will receive upfront payments from Merck and will be eligible for future milestone payments plus tiered royalties based on net sales.

Exscientia will receive an upfront payment of $20m and up to $674m in milestone payments if all three projects meet their objectives.

Meanwhile, BenevolentAI is set to receive a low double-digit million-dollar upfront payment from Merck, as well as milestone payments that take the value of the partnership to $594m.

“With the convergence of science, data and AI, we're determined to fast-track the development of new and truly innovative candidates, forging a path to previously unimaginable medical breakthroughs,” said Danny Bar-Zohar, global head of research, development, and chief medical officer for the healthcare business sector at Merck.

Joanna Shields, chief executive officer of BenevolentAI, said: “Our proprietary technology and… approach of combining AI, molecular biology, medicinal chemistry, and in vivo pharmacology supports the discovery of innovative drug candidates in fewer cycles.”

Professor Andrew Hopkins, founder and chief executive officer of Exscientia, said: “We look forward to complementing [Merck’s] scientific acumen with our integrated technology platform and ability to generate novel data in order to address some of the hardest drug design challenges in cancer and immunology."

Merck has already generated its own AI-based drug discovery engine, known as Aiddison, which aims to improve the probability of identifying drug-like molecules against a target and reduce the need to synthesise and screen compounds for activity in labs.

https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/merck_announces_partnerships_worth_$1.3bn_with_benevolentai_and_exscientia_1500714