Exscientia and GT Apeiron Therapeutics have entered an R&D collaboration. Exscientia’s AI expertise will be used 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.
This collaboration follows the 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.
Dr Mingxi Li, President of GT Apeiron Therapeutics, said: “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.”
Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, said: “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.”
