Recursion Pharmaceuticals : 2025 Proxy Statement

Published: 2025-05-18 20:07:00 ET RXRX

Published on 05/18/2025 at 20:07

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2025 Proxy Statement

Recursion is a clinical-stage TechBio company leading

the space by decoding biology to industrialize drug

discovery. Our vision is to leverage technology to map

and navigate biology and chemistry to discover and

develop better medicines faster.

Dear Shareholders,

As we step into 2025, I want to take a moment to reflect on where Recursion stands today and where we are headed. The future of our company-and of the broader pharmaceutical industry-depends on our ability to maintain an unwavering commitment to a bold, audacious vision. This is even more true in challenging times where funding, both for biotech companies and the early research that drives our industry forward, are facing headwinds. At Recursion, we are driven by a singular mission: to decode biology to radically improve lives. We are harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology, vast datasets, and foundation models to transform the way drugs are discovered and developed. And while we've adjusted our sails to the winds of our industry, capital markets and more, we've never altered our destination. We won't settle for anything less than achieving this mission, and I'm proud to lead a company where we take that approach, from our employees, to our leadership, and to our Board of Directors. Our boldness in the face of stormy weather is one of the things that makes us the leader in TechBio.

IN THE TECHBIO SPACE TO DATE WITH EXSCIENTIA

Recursion's commitment to revolutionizing drug development took a major leap forward last year with the announcement of the largest merger or acquisition in the TechBio space to date-our combination with Exscientia. This was not just a transaction; it was the formation of a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated, technology-first drug discovery platform, and it was a transaction that we've known could be transformative for years. By uniting Recursion's strength in scaling biological insights and clinical translation with Exscientia's precision chemistry and small-molecule expertise, we have created a seamless, AI-driven approach spanning from early discovery to clinical development.

Through this combination, we have built a unique full-stack platform. Way back in 2013, we started with a point-solution; leveraging computer vision to unlock all of the information in cell morphology. Our pioneering work in phenomics, which is now a part of nearly every large pharmaceutical company's discovery workstream, was just the beginning. While hundreds of TechBio startups today are optimizing their first point-solution, we've continued advancing our tech-enabled philosophy to build, buy and combine point solutions across virtually all major steps in drug discovery from target discovery to clinical development. We've continued investing, from scaling new high-dimensional -omics assays, to building BioHive-2, the most advanced supercomputer in the pharmaceutical industry, all because we believe more than ever that a technology-driven approach is what will finally unlock the much needed and anticipated shift in the way drugs are discovered and developed.

And while I'm proud that we have led the burgeoning TechBio space for more than a decade, I'm even happier to see hundreds of companies, big and small, following in our footsteps. For years we preached the potential of combining sophisticated computational techniques with large biological and chemical dataset creation to a skeptical (and sometimes hostile) audience. Today, the naysayers are part of a slimming minority and the progressive visionaries of the industry are all plotting their path to this inevitable future of drug discovery. The era of TechBio is truly here, and we are proud to be such a big part of it.

The strength of our approach is evident in our growing portfolio. We now have a substantial pipeline of clinical and preclinical programs. Beyond that, we have many more advanced discovery programs advancing rapidly toward the clinic alongside some incredibly exciting programs and molecules that are a part of our discovery collaborations.

IN COLLABORATION PAYMENTS TO DATE

One compelling example is REC-1245, a potential first-in-class RBM39 degrader for biomarker-enriched solid tumors and lymphoma. This program, one of the first to result from our end-to-end AI-enabled platform, leveraged advanced maps of biology to identify RBM39 as a critical target and our early AI-enabled chemistry platform to advance the molecule to candidate. Through preclinical models, we validated that RBM39 degradation disrupts key DNA damage response (DDR) networks, potentially halting cancer growth. The journey from target identification to IND-enabling studies was completed in just 18 months-less than half of the industry average-leading to our first patient being dosed in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Another breakthrough is REC-617, our precision-designed CDK7 inhibitor, which has shown promising interim results in the Phase 1/2 ELUCIDATE trial. Early data demonstrates robust target engagement, a favorable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profile, and compelling initial clinical activity. Notably, a confirmed partial response was observed in a heavily pre-treated patient with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, lasting more than six months, alongside four additional patients achieving stable disease. Designed entirely using our AI-led platform, REC-617 was synthesized from hit to candidate in just under 12 months, requiring only 136 novel molecules-an order of magnitude more efficient than conventional drug discovery.

Beyond our own programs, we continue to collaborate with leading biopharma partners like Roche and Genentech, Sanofi, Bayer, and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

These partnerships validate our platform and amplify our impact. For example, our collaboration with Roche and Genentech achieved a groundbreaking milestone: the world's first genome-scale Neuromap, a comprehensive AI-powered model of neurobiology built from human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neurons. This effort, which required generating over a trillion neurons, led to a first-of-its-kind neuroscience phenomap that Roche-Genentech optioned for $30 million.

Similarly, our work with Sanofi continues to drive value. In 2024, we received $15 million in milestone payments after advancing two discovery programs into lead optimization, each showing strong differentiation and best-in-class potential. To date, we have generated over $450 million in collaboration payments, not only through upfront payments, but by consistently delivering on milestones, a feat achieved by few other biotech companies in history. As we look ahead, we are well on our way toward unlocking up to $20 billion in potential milestone payments before royalties-fueling the next generation of AI-driven drug discovery and development.

For the small set of leaders in TechBio-spanning companies, institutes and academics -we are converging around a breakthrough in the coming years that has the potential to create a transformational shift. We are approaching a future where many biological processes can be accurately simulated-a concept we call the "virtual cell." Today, our wet labs primarily generate the data needed to train AI models. But in the near future, these labs will primarily validate AI-driven predictions, fundamentally flipping the paradigm of drug discovery.

Four interconnected layers of biology

"This is not just about technology for the sake of technology. It is about ensuring that the boldest ideas in biotech are realized and that the future of medicine is shaped by those who are willing to embrace the extraordinary."

We believe that achieving this vision will require excellence across four interconnected layers of biology:

Population-Scale Patient-Level Data: Thanks to the genomic revolution and the progressive thinking of a small number of governments around the world, we and many others have had access to population-scale -omics data from patients. In the last 18 months, we have dramatically expanded the power of our approach by signing deals with companies like Tempus and Helix to bring tens of petabytes of proprietary data to support our discovery and development.

Pathway-Level Data: We are far ahead in systematically mapping gene networks across multiple cellular contexts, using techniques like whole-genome CRISPR knockout and high-dimensional -omics analysis across hundreds of millions of proprietary experiments.

Protein-Level Insights: AlphaFold and similar tools have revolutionized protein modeling. By integrating state-of-the-art protein-protein interaction and ligand-binding predictions, we remain at the forefront of this rapidly evolving space.

Atomistic-Level Simulations: With Exscientia's quantum mechanics/molecular dynamics (QM/MD) expertise now part of Recursion, we are uniquely positioned to lead in simulating molecular interactions at atomic precision.

By integrating these layers, Recursion is building one of the most advanced predictive models of human biology ever created. This will allow us to explore the vast landscape of potential drugs and disease mechanisms in silico before ever stepping into the lab- dramatically accelerating drug development timelines and reducing costs.

In 2025, we are also doubling down on transforming clinical development through our ClinTech platform, powered by AI, automation, and real-world evidence. Our partnerships with Tempus, Helix and a growing cohort of other data sources provide us with access to critical patient data, allowing us to:

Use AI-driven simulations to optimize trial design and enhance our probability of success.

Automate critical processes like patient recruitment and site activation,

dramatically reducing enrollment timelines.

Leverage real-world evidence to inform regulatory strategies and increase the likelihood of clinical success.

And through partnerships with Faro Health and other industry leaders, we are industrializing clinical workflows, reducing trial costs, and streamlining operations-all while increasing the speed at which we bring new medicines to patients. We are in the early days of this work, but I am so excited at the potential I am already seeing. Coupling these advances with our discovery and translational platform will magnify all of our clintech work and continue to accelerate our lead in the TechBio space.

Disclaimer

Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. published this content on May 18, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 19, 2025 at 00:05 UTC.