EQRx and Exscientia are collaborating to combine the AI capabilities of Exscientia to accelerate the discovery of small molecule therapeutic drug candidates and expand EQRx’s pipeline of novel therapies.
This collaboration is focused on creating improvements in the traditional drug discovery and development processes by improving the probability of success through each company’s capabilities to accelerate the delivery of innovative new medicines—from discovery to commercialisation.
Exscientia will lead the discovery phase through to Investigational New Drug application (IND) filing, while EQRx will be responsible for clinical development, regulatory and commercialization efforts. EQRx and Exscientia will equally share in the discovery, development and commercialisation costs.
“Exscientia is a leader in AI-driven drug discovery, and of particular note, has now brought multiple AI-engineered drug candidates to clinical trials. We believe that our aligned focus on efficiency and quality sets a truly unique course to bring the next generation of innovative medicines to patients faster and at a fraction of the cost,” said Alexis Borisy, chairman and chief executive officer of EQRx. “This is a significant step in building EQRx’s robust, sustainable and industry-leading pipeline of important new medicines and substantially accelerates our early-stage research capabilities.”
“We are impatient for patients. EQRx and Exscientia are partners who are equally focused on re-engineering the way we create and distribute drugs for better outcomes for more patients. This exciting new collaboration brings together technologies through a new model that has the potential to truly disrupt how we think about efficiently creating innovative new medicines for all patients,” said Andrew Hopkins, chief executive officer of Exscientia. “Together with the team at EQRx we look forward to building a successful partnership, to enable more patients to access better drugs, faster.”