Exscientia and Sanofi collaborate to develop AI-driven precision-engineered medicines

The platform integrates primary human tissue samples into early target and drug discovery research.

Sanofi and Exscientia have announced a research collaboration and license agreement to develop up to 15 novel small molecule candidates across oncology and immunology. This will utilise Exscientia’s end-to-end AI-driven platform, which uses real patient samples.

By using a platform which integrates primary human tissue samples into early target and drug discovery research, Exscientia scientists can integrate the patient, disease and clinically relevant data into decisions made on potential new medicine candidates. 
Alongside target discovery, Exscientia will lead small molecule drug design and lead activities including development candidate nomination. Sanofi will be responsible for preclinical and clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialisation.

“It is immensely exciting to collaborate with Sanofi with our goal of realising the full potential of AI to deliver the next generation of cancer and immunology medicines,” said Andrew Hopkins, CEO and founder of Exscientia.“Our AI-driven platform can be leveraged across drug discovery, translational research and development, with applications ranging from improving the precision medicine and quality of drug candidates to enriching for patient selection in clinical trials.

“Our expanded collaboration with Sanofi will utilise the breadth of our platform to test AI-designed drug candidates against patient tissue models, potentially providing far better accuracy than conventional approaches such as mouse models. When you consider the change this represents – testing candidates against actual human tissue years before a clinical trial – it’s transformative.”

“We look forward to deepening our work with Exscientia, a leader in leveraging AI to modernise all aspects of drug discovery and development,”added Frank Nestle, global head of research and chief scientific officer at Sanofi.“Sanofi’s collaboration with Exscientia aims to transform how we discover and develop new small molecule medicines for cancer and immune-mediated diseases. Application of sophisticated AI and machine learning methods will not only shorten drug discovery timelines, but will also help to design higher quality and better targeted medicines for patients.”