Allcyte’s platform anticipates the activity of cancer treatments using AI to analyse the activity of drugs in live patient samples at single-cell resolution
Exscientia acquires AI personalised medicine firm Allcyte. (Credit: Exscientia.)
UK-based AI-driven pharmatech company Exscientia has agreed to acquire Austrian precision medicine company Allcyte to expand its translational capabilities.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Exscientia is expected to pay €50m, containing a mix of cash and Exscientia ordinary shares.
The merger would enable evaluation of individual patient biology in primary tumour tissues, instead of artificial cell lines or animal models, said the company.
Allcyte has developed a platform that anticipates the effectiveness of cancer treatments using AI to analyse the activity of drugs in live patient samples at single-cell resolution.
It has been validating the advanced assessment platform on multiple solid and haematological tumour types along with non-cancerous tissues.
Allcyte CEO Nikolaus Krall said: “We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to immediately apply this technology to a wide range of drug discovery projects at Exscientia.
“This will also provide our team with the scale to expand our operations much more quickly to help provide important personalised, precision medicines to as many patients as possible.”
Exscientia aims to expand and extend the Allcyte’s platform into early discovery to apply its technologies from target discovery and drug optimisation to patient selection.
Also, the company intends to expand the Vienna site as its hub in the European Union (EU).
The end-to-end approach of the platform allows the assessment of discovery projects in a biological setting, which more accurately reflects the actual patient environment.
In the EXALT-1 study, Allcyte’s approach predicted the most effective therapy for late-stage haematological cancer patients based on drug activity in their own tissue samples.
The real-world patient selection capabilities of the platform obtained a 55% overall response rate and statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival.
The transaction is currently being reviewed under the customary Austrian regulatory process prior to closing.
Exscientia CEO Andrew Hopkins said: “Allcyte is able to demonstrate what therapy actually works in the individual patient with the most disease-relevant screening platform we have seen.
“Combining Allcyte’s platform with Exscientia’s technologies can redefine how drugs are developed, enabling integrated discovery and patient selection.
“Allcyte has assembled an outstanding team in Vienna and integration of the two platforms truly allows us to build our vision of patient-first AI.”
Last month, Exscientia has expanded its collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb to advance the discovery of small molecule drug candidates in oncology & immunology.