BenevolentAI announces strategic plan to boost AI and biopharma businesses

AMSTERDAM: BenevolentAI, a leader that combines cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and science to accelerate biopharma discovery and development, today announced a strategic review approved by its Board of Directors.

The Company said it is further evolving its differentiated technology platform and launching a new suite of products to capitalise on the vast potential of AI-driven technologies in the biopharma domain.

Simultaneously, the Company is optimising its portfolio to focus on its most advanced and promising pipeline assets.

The new strategic plan aims to maximise the impact of BenevolentAI’s innovative technology platform for commercial deployment through new revenue-generating products, collaborations and partnerships.

It also prioritises the Company’s most advanced and high-potential clinical and pre-clinical assets, progressing them to their value inflection points.

The plan will reduce spending and free up £45 million of net cash to increase the Company’s financial flexibility, extending the cash runway to at least July 2025 (without accounting for any new revenue). The plan will also align the organisational structure to the new strategic direction.

As part of the strategic plan, the Company will streamline and reorganise operations across two distinct business units – the Tech Business Unit and the Bio Business Unit – supported by Shared Business Operations. This will improve capital efficiency and enhance operational effectiveness.

Chief Executive Officer, Joanna Shields said,“Embarking on this process requires difficult decisions, particularly concerning our valued colleagues. Our new strategic direction ensures we maximise our portfolio and leverage the knowledge and expertise we have built up in recent years to meet this moment of opportunity for AI in biopharma.”

The Tech Business Unit will deploy a new suite of AI products, including a natural language biomedical querying system, enabling biopharma partners to accelerate new discoveries, harness the power of AI to unlock the value of their data, and gain a competitive edge.

The Company will expand its commercialisation of this technology through collaborations and partnerships.

The Bio Business Unit will streamline its portfolio, focusing on taking its most advanced and high-potential assets to their key value inflection points.

These prioritised drug programmes include BEN-8744 for Ulcerative Colitis, BEN-28010 for Glioblastoma Multiforme, and earlier-stage assets in neurodegenerative and immunological diseases.

As a result of this streamlining, the Company will reduce its lab footprint and expenditures and pause selected programmes while retaining key drug discovery and target identification capabilities and adopting a strategic outsourcing model. The Company will not invest further in BEN-2293 following its Phase 2a trial results.

As part of the strategic review, the Company has considered its cost base and organisational structure and will commence a collective consultation process around proposed headcount reductions expected to result in net cost savings of £45 million.

These net savings are expected to be realised through £13 million in facilities and other operating expenses and £32 million in reduced drug programme and staff costs, representing a reduction of up to approximately 180 employees.

Alongside this news, Nicholas Keher has provided notice of his resignation as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Company to pursue other business interests.

Tom Holgate, SVP and Group Finance Director, will act as interim CFO and provide transitional support while a search is conducted for Nicholas’ replacement.

In summary, this strategic review and reorganisation positions BenevolentAI to maximise value creation for stakeholders.

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