Artificial intelligence biotech firm BenevolentAI is reorganizing its operations for the second time in less than two years, and this time it says the changes will take the company back to its original mission of serving biopharma industry partners.
Going forward, London-based BenevolentAI will refocus its efforts on its core technologies for drug discovery and development. The Wednesday announcement offered few financial details, but the company did say the coming changes include plans to take the company private.
BenevolentAI went public in a 2022 SPAC merger that brought the company to the Euronext Amsterdam exchange and infused it with €225 million (about $236 million). At that time, the company said it had 300 employees spread across offices in London and New York as well as laboratories in Cambridge, U.K. BenevolentAI also said its internal pipeline had more than 20 programs in various stages of development. Since its public markets debut, the company’s stock price has steadily declined.
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BenevolentAI had taken a two-pronged approach to business. It sought partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotech firms interested in using its proprietary technologies for identifying or validating drug targets, designing new drugs, and repurposing existing drugs for other indications. Companies leveraging BenevolentAI’s technologies for such applications include Merck KGaA, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly. BenevolentAI receives upfront fees and milestone payments. In the case of Lilly, the AI company received an equity investment.
The second piece of BenevolentAI’s business model focused on in-house drug discovery and development with a goal of out licensing or partnering these assets at key value-inflection points. This part of the business has had some stumbles. Last year, BenevolentAI stopped work on an internally discovered atopic dermatitis program after Phase 2 results showed the drug did not reduce itch and inflammation.
A subsequent corporate restructuring focused the company on other clinical and preclinical assets. Months later, CEO Joanna Shields stepped down from her role. She was succeeded by Bayer veteran Joerg Moeller. In October, BenevolentAI announced the departure of Moeller and the appointment of Kenneth Mulvaney as executive chairman. Mulvaney founded BenevolentAI in 2013 and he returned to the company’s board of directors this past May.
Currently, BenevolentAI’s most advanced internal program is BEN-8744, an orally administered PDE10 inhibitor. This drug is early clinical development for ulcerative colitis and the company says the molecule has potential applications in other inflammatory bowel disorders. Preclinical assets include drug candidates for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and glioblastoma. While BenevolentAi said it will maintain its drug development partnering strategy for internally discovered and developed drugs, it will now seek to partner these assets earlier in the development cycle. On the technology front, BenevolentAI said it will transform its offerings into more flexible, standalone products designed to address the needs of its biopharma partners.
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BenevolentAI did not specify how many jobs could be cut in the reorganization. The company’s financial report for the first half of 2024 states it had 180 employees in London and Cambridge. As of June 30, BenevolentAI reported its cash position was £38.1 million (about $48.5 million), which the company had projected would support operations late into the third quarter of 2025. With the restructuring, BenevolentAI now projects its cash runway will extend into 2027. BenevolentAI said its board concluded it is in the company’s best interest to delist from Euronext Amsterdam because the financial costs associated with being a public company divert resources away from core activities.
“By reallocating these funds toward the development and commercialization of AI technologies, BenevolentAI can more effectively meet partners’ needs,” the company said in its announcement. “Additionally, transitioning to a private company would grant greater operational agility and reduced corporate complexity, enabling the Company to better lead the dynamic TechBio sector it has helped to pioneer and develop over the last decade.”
Illustration: metamorworks, Getty Images
