AI Biotech Firm Exscientia Secures $60 Million in Series C Funding, Expands Global Pharma Collaborations

Recently, AI biotechnology company Exscientia announced the completion of a $60 million Series C financing round, with participation from Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), to continue advancing its existing drug development pipeline.

Exscientia was founded in 2012 by Professor Andrew Hopkins, a chemist at the University of Dundee. The company has consistently focused on building a computational platform and leveraging it to help traditional pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies accelerate drug discovery. This is a common strategy among AI-driven biotech firms, with an emphasis on expediting the identification and construction of novel drug-like molecules. Essentially, these companies employ machine learning to screen compounds at scales orders of magnitude greater than those achievable through traditional screening processes, aiming to shorten the time required for new drug development. Its innovative Centaur Chemist™ platform significantly enhances productivity and enables the development of new approaches to improve drug efficacy. Novel compounds are automatically designed and prioritized for synthesis through its AI system, thereby rapidly advancing them toward the candidate criteria required for clinical development.

Leveraging its standout technology, the platform has garnered favor from multiple large pharmaceutical companies and secured numerous collaborations. In January this year, the company announced a discovery agreement with Bayer in the field of cardiology. Previously, it had entered into an R&D agreement with Sunovion for psychiatric disorders, an R&D agreement with Celgene for oncology and autoimmune systems, an R&D agreement with Roche for oncology, and an agreement with Sanofi for metabolic diseases, among others.

Centaur Chemist™ Platform (Image source: Exscientia official website)

In a collaboration with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, they will advance an AI-designed, precision-engineered drug into Phase I clinical development for the treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The project took less than 12 months to progress from target identification to the candidate drug selection stage, representing a significant time saving compared to the average 4.5 years required by traditional development methods. This also constitutes a highly successful proof-of-concept study.

After signing collaboration agreements with multiple large companies, Exscientia continues to expand its business scope into the field of major diseases. In March this year, Exscientia announced a partnership with Diamond Light Source and Scripps Research to jointly develop antiviral therapies for patients infected with COVID-19.

“This financing highlights the potential of AI to transform drug discovery,” said Professor Andrew Hopkins, CEO and Founder of Exscientia. “We have now demonstrated that our platform can accelerate the timeline from initial concept to delivering viable new drug candidates for patients.”

References:

[1] Exscientia raises $60 million in Series C financing round led by Novo Holdings. Retrieved 2020-05-27，https://www.exscientia.ai/news-insights/exscientia-raises-60-million-in-series-c-financing

(Original Title: Partnering with Multiple Top-10 Global Pharmaceutical Companies, This Company Secures $60 Million in Financing)