Combines Exscientia’s leading AI-driven drug identification and design capabilities with GT Apeiron’s expertise in cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) targets for oncology

Expands existing CDK7 drug discovery partnership with additional CDK targeting drugs

Exscientia, an AI-driven pharmatech company with a mission to revolutionise how drugs are discovered, and GT Apeiron Therapeutics （Apeiron）, a Shanghai based company focused on novel oncology drugs, announced today a strategic research and development collaboration agreement. The collaboration will leverage the patient-centric AI-first capabilities of Exscientia to accelerate the discovery of multiple small molecule therapeutic drug candidates designed to selectively treat aberrant cell cycle driven cancers and build a pipeline of CDK novel therapies. All pipeline products will be equally owned and Exscientia holds an equity stake in Apeiron.

This expanded collaboration follows the successful design of multiple selective CDK7 compounds. The potent, highly selective, non-covalent CDK7 compounds have demonstrated consistent tumour responses in xenograft models as well as exceptional pharmacokinetics. In addition, using live primary tissue samples from ovarian cancer patients, the CDK7 inhibitors showed both enhanced tumour cell cytotoxicity as well as selectivity over immune cells in the same microenvironment.

“Based on what they have already achieved, Exscientia is clearly the leader in AI-driven drug discovery, and we have witnessed this first-hand in our collaboration so far,” stated Dr. Mingxi Li, President of GT Apeiron Therapeutics. “We have been incredibly impressed by the combined power of the AI design and use of patient data to optimize and select molecules that are more likely to give positive effects in the clinic. This joint venture is a significant step in building GT Apeiron’s valuable and robust pipeline of CDK inhibitor drugs and substantially accelerates our early-stage output and progression towards being a clinical stage biotech company.”

“We are driven to bring drugs to market that make a difference for patients,” says Andrew Hopkins, chief executive officer of Exscientia. “Apeiron bring a focus and an expertise on the biological basis of multiple cancers and helps us to create better drugs for better outcomes in the clinic and beyond. This collaboration has already proven to be capable of delivering potential drug candidates with promising patient-relevant data, and we look forward to extending that into a portfolio of multiple clinical assets.”

About Exscientia

Exscientia is an AI-driven pharmatech company committed to discovering and designing the best possible medicines in the fastest and most effective manner. Exscientia is the first company to progress AI-designed small molecules into the clinical setting and repeatedly demonstrate the ability of AI to transform how drugs are created. Exscientia’s AI platform has now designed three drugs that are in Phase 1 human clinical trials.

Drug design is precision engineering at the molecular scale. Exscientia has built dedicated AI systems that efficiently learn from the widest range of data and consistently reapply enhanced knowledge through iterations of design. Because Exscientia’s AI platform learns more effectively and rapidly than human-led efforts alone, candidate molecules satisfying complex therapeutic requirements are created with revolutionary efficiency. Exscientia believes that designing better drugs, faster, will allow the best ideas of science to rapidly become the best medicines for patients.

Exscientia has offices in Oxford, Miami, Osaka and Dundee. For more information visit us on www.exscientia.ai Social media: Twitter @exscientiaAI. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/ex-scientia/

About GT Apeiron Therapeutics

GT Apeiron Therapeutics is strategically based in Shanghai and in the San Francisco Bay Area, with significant collaborations in the UK enabling us to tap into technologies and talent from all three continents. Our team and partners bring together deep expertise in oncology and drug discovery to enable efficient and scalable discovery and development of novel drugs. To learn more, visit http://www.apeiron-bio.com/ Social media: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/gt-apeiron-therapeutics/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210721005394/en/