Home AI AI Drug firm Exscientia raises $60M in Series C round of funding

AI Drug firm Exscientia raises $60M in Series C round of funding

Exscientia
Exscientia

We have seen various reports so far that tell us about a certain AI company or a manufacturer that is using AI in their development to make things work better. However, we have not heard of a report where there is an AI Drug company that has been backed by investors and has received a huge round of funding. But that will change now as an AI drug company named Exscientia has raised a $60M round of funding and it is also their Series C round of funding.

It is revealed that the company has been funded in two previous rounds for around the same amount as this round. Professor Andrew Hopkins who is the CEO of Exscientia says that “This investment highlights the increasing commitment to the potential of AI to transform drug discovery and the excitement that we have garnered around the innovative work we are doing at Exscientia,”.

The professor adds that “We have now demonstrated multiple times that our platform can accelerate the time between the start of an idea and a viable new drug candidate for patients in need of treatments, fast-tracking the entire R&D process.”

Talking Exscientia and the work it does, this company is known t be operating in Oxford and as per reports, it “uses artificial intelligence for small molecule drug discovery”. It is worth noting that the company is developing the first-ever precision-engineered drug using AI.

A report from Unite.AI reveals that the “drug serves as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and it entered Phase 1 human clinical trials. The entire project lasted less than 12 months, in a process that traditionally takes 4.5 years with conventional methods”.

Also, Exscientia has been involved in developing antiviral drugs regarding COVID-19 as well. The company has been working with drug-developer Calibr among others to develop such a drug for the treatment.