Why Shares of Exscientia Jumped on Wednesday

What happened

Shares of Exscientia (NASDAQ:EXAI) were up 12% as of Wednesday's close, two days after the clinical-stage healthcare company said it had begun enrollment on a phase 1/2 clinical trial looking at an advanced solid-tumor therapy. The stock is up more than 38% so far this year.

So what

Exscienta is an AI-driven precision medicine company that focuses on oncology therapies. The clinical-stage drug-discovery company's shares climbed for three reasons. First, the NASDAQ Composite Index was up 185 points on Wednesday, closing at its highest level since April of 2022 after data showed the rate of inflation last month slowed to the lowest level since early 2021. Second, the report about the company beginning its clinical trial for GTAEXS617 to treat advanced solid tumors was announced after the markets closed on Monday, but that still helped prod the stock for another day. The last factor was the fact that several AI-oriented healthcare stocks benefited from positive news regarding Recursion Pharmaceuticals, another AI-connected healthcare company that received a $50 million investment from chip maker NVIDIA.

Now what

Exscienta has a huge pipeline with more than 30 programs, including 20 programs that are collaborations with Bristol-Myers Squibb or Sanofi. The company said it focuses on intelligent clinical designs to improve success, using AI to better match up patient populations with clinical trials. In the GTAEXS617 trial, the company is targeting the CDK7 enzyme to inhibit certain elapsed/refractory solid tumors. However, despite the company's success, it doesn't have any approved therapies yet, so there's plenty of risk with the stock. In the first quarter, the company said it had $553.3 million in cash, enough to fund operations for several years.

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Jim Halley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.