An Introduction

AI-powered drug discovery holds massive potential to increase the accessibility of drugs and to treat presently incurable conditions given the promise of lower costs and shorter development timelines. We theoretically index eight clinical-stage drug discovery stocks (for complete background see original introduction in December 2023.)

The munKNEE AI-powered Drug Discovery Stocks Index

These constituents in munKNEE's AI-powered Drug Discovery Stocks Index use AI to facilitate the discovery and development of new drugs. They are ranked below in order of their stock performances in February and YTD, accompanied by a description of each company's focus of operations and any recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:

1. Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX); up 43.0% in February; up 36.5% YTD
   • has one of the world’s most extensive biological and chemical datasets and conducts millions of experiments per week using supercomputers, machine learning and automated robotic labs and has several compounds in phase 1 and 2 studies.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • Recursion Provides Business Updates and Reports Q4 and FY 2023 Financial Results
2. Absci Corporation (ABSI): up 30.3% in February; up 22.9% YTD
   • is focused on antibody design, creating new from scratch antibodies (“de novo antibodies”), and testing them in laboratories in a 6-week process.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis: 
     • Absci Initiates IND-Enabling Studies for ABS-101 Designed and Optimized Using Generative AI
3. Exscientia (EXAI): up 14.1% in February; up 3.7% YTD
   • is collaborating with Bristol-Myers Squibb on a handful of drug candidates and has partnered with Sanofi, GSK and PathAI on drug discovery projects.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • Exscientia Initiates Clinical Study to Further Evaluate Functional Precision Medicine Platform in Cancer Patients
4. Lantern Pharma (LTRN): up 14.0% in February; up 12.4% YTD
   • specializes in developing new classes of precision cancer drugs with novel mechanisms of action and “recycling” previously unsuccessful cancer drugs using machine learning algorithms, genomic data, and novel precision oncology biomarkers.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • Lantern Pharma Advances Unique Antibody Drug Conjugate Program Across Multiple Solid Tumor Cancers
5. Relay Therapeutics (RLAY): up 8.3% in February; down 9.0% YTD
   • is developing an AI-driven allosteric drug-discovery platform to detect interactions that occur on a protein of interest with an initial focus on precision oncology and genetic diseases.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • Relay Therapeutics Reports Q4 and FY 2023 Financial Results and Corporate Highlights
6. AbCellera Biologics (ABCL): down 1.2% in February; down 11.6% YTD
   • uses AI to focus on the search for, and analyzing of, the immune systems to find potential antibodies, then outsourcing their initial findings to their partners for further drug discovery.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • AbCellera Reports Full Year 2023 Business Results
7. BioXcel Therapeutics (BTAI): down 1.2% in February; up 7.8% YTD
   • leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically evaluated product candidates together with big data and machine learning algorithms to identify new therapeutic applications.
   • recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • BioXcel Therapeutics Receives FDA Fast Track Designation for Treatment of Small Cell Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer 
8. Schrödinger (SDGR): down 3.7% in February; down 28.9% YTD
   • offers specialized solutions for both small molecule discovery and biologics discovery focusing on structure prediction and protein engineering, including antibody modeling.
   •  recent news, commentary, and/or analysis:
     • Schrödinger Reports Q4 and FY 2023 Financial Results

Summary

The munKNEE AI-powered Drug Discovery Stocks Index was up 9.4% in February and is now only down 8.0% YTD.

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