Bayer Partners with AI Drug Discovery Firm Exscientia in €240 Million Deal to Accelerate Cardiovascular and Oncology Therapies

Image source:ExscientiaOfficial Website

Leiphone News: Recently, pharmaceutical giant Bayer announced a collaboration with AI-driven drug discovery company Exscientia on the research and development of drugs for cardiovascular diseases and oncology. Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties have already established plans for three projects.

Exscientia may receive up to €240 million from Bayer, including upfront payments, research payments, and near-term clinical expenses. As part of the agreement, Exscientia may also receive royalties.

Jörg Moeller, Member of the Executive Committee of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division and Head of Research and Development, stated: “This collaboration drives digital transformation in drug R&D. We believe that digital technologies such as artificial intelligence can streamline and accelerate the discovery and development of new drugs. By enabling more efficient identification of suitable drug targets and lead structures, Exscientia’s products help expedite our projects.”

Exscientia’s platform leverages big data and deep learning to automatically design millions of small-molecule compounds targeting specific biomarkers, based on existing drug development data, and screens these compounds according to efficacy, selectivity, ADME properties, and other requirements.

The top candidate compounds identified through screening are synthesized and experimentally tested, with the resulting data fed back into the AI system to refine compound selection in subsequent rounds. This AI-driven rapid cycle of drug design, synthesis, and testing significantly enhances drug development efficiency.

According to the historical drug development results of Exscientia’s platform, AI-driven drug discovery platforms require approximately one-quarter of the time and cost needed by traditional human medicinal chemists to identify candidate compounds.

Prior to this, Exscientia had already established collaborations with companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi, Rallybio, and Roche, engaging in drug development for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), immune-mediated diseases, and rare diseases, as well as the current focus on cardiovascular and oncology indications.

Exscientia, founded in 2012 and headquartered in the United Kingdom, has developed an artificial intelligence platform called Centaur Chemist that, beyond chemistry, can also mine genetic data and biological literature in the field of biology.

In January 2019, the company secured a $26 million Series B financing round with participation from Celgene, GT Healthcare Capital, and Evotec AG. In March 2019, Exscientia established its subsidiary, Exscientia KK, headquartered in Osaka, Japan, under the leadership of Dr. Daisuke Tanaka, a pharmacologist. The establishment of Exscientia KK aims to promote its presence in the Asian market, with future expansion planned across the broader Asian region, including China, Singapore, and South Korea.Leiphone

Professor Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, stated: “We are delighted to partner with Bayer, a globally renowned pharmaceutical company. Since our Nature paper demonstrated the automated design of small molecules, we have proven our commercialization capabilities through ongoing collaborations with pharmaceutical companies to accelerate the discovery of drug molecules.”Leiphone(WeChat Official Account: Leiphone)

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