Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

An Introduction

The major expense of developing new drugs costs about $900 million, on average, per discovery and 13.5 years, on average, to do so the conventional way and has created a huge shortage in drug candidates and programs. That being said, the advent of AI has significantly shortened and cheapened this process by automating that entire process.

AI-powered Drug Discovery Growth Projections

According to Grand View Research, the global "AI in drug discovery" market was worth about $1.1 billion last year and is expected to expand by a compound annual growth rate of 30% between now and 2030. That outsized growth is expected to result in approximately 50 novel therapies being brought to market over the next decade, with annual sales in excess of $50 billion by then according to Morgan Stanley.

The munKNEE AI-focused Drug Discovery Stocks Portfolio below tracks the progress of 6 small cap companies focused on the use of AI to discover new drugs. They are listed below in descending order as to their performances last week along with a description of each, and links to the most recent news, analyses and commentary where applicable.

1. Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX): UP 8.8% last week
   • Company Description:
     • Recursion has one of the world’s most extensive biological and chemical datasets and has several compounds in phase 1 and 2 studies, including a small molecule therapeutic for cavernous cerebral malformation and another for neurofibromatosis type 2.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Recursion Pharmaceuticals Stock Could Be a 10-Bagger, but Only if It Comes Through on This Big Claim
2.  Schrödinger (SDGR): DOWN 5.1% last week
   • Company Description:
     • Schrödinger focuses on structure prediction and protein engineering, including antibody modeling.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Schrödinger First Quarter 2024 Earnings Miss Expectations
3. Exscientia (EXAI): DOWN 6.5% last week
   • Company Description:
     • Exscientia is collaborating with Bristol-Myers Squibb on a handful of drug candidates and has partnered with Sanofi, GSK and PathAI on drug discovery projects.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Can Exscientia Climb +50% to Reach the Level Wall Street Analysts Expect?
4. Relay Therapeutics (RLAY): DOWN 7.5% last week
   • Company Description:
     • Relay is developing a platform to detect and characterize interactions that occur on a protein of interest and combines computational methods with experimental approaches across the fields of structural biology, biophysics, and chemistry. Its initial focus is on precision oncology and genetic diseases.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Relay Therapeutics Announces Clinical Trial Collaboration with Pfizer
5. Absci Corporation (ABSI): DOWN 9.1% last week
   • Company Description:
     • Absci creates new antibodies from scratch antibodies and tests them in a 6-week process.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Absci Reports Business Updates and First Quarter 2024 Financial and Operating Results Financial Results
6. AbCellera Biologics (ABCL): DOWN 10.8% last week
   • Company Description:
     • AbCellera searches the immune systems to find potential antibodies and then outsources their findings to their partners for further drug discovery.
   • News, Analysis and Commentary:
     • Down 11%, Is AbCellera Biologics a Buy on the Dip?

Summary

5 of the 6 stocks in the munKNEE AI-powered Drug Discovery Stocks Portfolio were DOWN (-4.1%, on average) last week as were 3 of the 4 stocks in the munKNEE Psychedelic Compound-Based Drug Stocks Portfolio (+ 0.3%, on average) as a result of overall general clinical stage stock weakness. 

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