Absci Corp. (Nasdaq: ABSI) lost $27.2 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, but the Washington-based "generative AI" drug creation company, has enough cash to sustain it into late 2025, CEO Sean McClain said.
The company ended the third quarter with $181.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, according to results announced Wednesday. Total revenue was $2.3 million, up from $1.5 million the year before.
McClain said in an interview that Absci finished a strong quarter, especially in its drug development program with Merck involving non-standard amino acid technology. Absci achieved a technical milestone in the work, McClain said.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about where that program sits,” he said.
In August, Absci laid off an unspecified number of employees, citing macroeconomic conditions.
But the company, which has 188 employees, continued to build out its leadership team in the quarter, with Andreas Busch taking on the role of Chief Innovation Officer. Busch led 10 commercial drugs from bench to FDA approval when he headed R&D at Bayer and Shire.
“Having his expertise, along with our technology, is going to increase the success we have on our current drug discovery programs and help us progress our pipeline,” McClain said.
Dan Rabinovitsj, a senior executive at Meta (Nasdaq: META) joined Absci’s board.
“He’s in charge of building the Metaverse for Meta and has a ton of experience scaling companies, lot of operational experience, in particular on the tech side,” McClain said. “Since we’re merging tech and biotech, it’s great to have his perspective there.”
Absci has a total of 17 active drug discovery programs with large pharma partners or biotech companies. McClain said he expects to lose money as Absci continues to grow that pipeline.
“There’s not a capital constraint on us now, due to the fact that we expect to have cash sufficient to fund operations into late 2025,” he said.
