By Colin Kellaher

Shares of Exscientia rose sharply in premarket trading Wednesday after the precision-medicine company formed an artificial-intelligence collaboration potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars with German science and technology company Merck KGaA.

As part of the multi-year agreement, Exscientia said it will receive a $20 million upfront payment from Merck and will be eligible for up to $674 million in milestone payments, along with royalties on product sales.

Exscientia said the companies will use its AI-driven precision drug design and discovery capabilities to discover novel small-molecule drug candidates across oncology, neuroinflammation and immunology.

Exscientia shares, which closed Tuesday at $5.06, were recently up 21% to $6.14 in premarket trading.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2023 06:32 ET (10:32 GMT)

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