Exscientia and GT Apeiron Therapeutics Enter Oncology Joint Venture
21.7.2021 11:00:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
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/
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210721005394/en/
Contact information
Exscientia Enquiries:
Edelman PR
Nathan Field
P: +44 (0)7866 411198
Nathan.Field@edelman.com
GT Apeiron Therapeutics Contact:
info@apeiron-bio.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Vertex Energy Announces 6,000 bpd Group III Base Oil Expansion Project24.6.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vertex Energy, Inc. (“Vertex” or the “Company”) today announced it is advancing a project at its Mobile, Alabama refinery to produce crude-derived conventional Group III base oils through the Company’s existing hydrocracker and related processing infrastructure, providing lubricant manufacturers and blenders with an additional domestic source of high-quality Group III supply. The project is designed to add an incremental 6,000 barrels per day of conventional Group III production capacity and support production of 4 cSt, 6 cSt, and 8 cSt Group III base oils using an existing crude-derived hydrocracked vacuum gas oil stream produced at the Company’s Mobile, Alabama refinery. Combined with the Company’s existing re-refined Group III base oil production, this additional capacity is expected to make Vertex the leading Group III producer in North America. Vertex has completed preliminary design work and has procured a high-pressure lubricants hydrotreating unit. The Company plans to start pr
Taktile Secures $110M in Goldman Sachs-led Series C to Power AI Transformation in Financial Institutions24.6.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
Taktile, the leader in AI transformation for financial institutions, today announced its $110 million Series C fundraise. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led the round, with participation from Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Tiger Global, Y Combinator, and Dig Ventures. Taktile Fast Facts Taktile enables banks and insurers to transform into AI-native organizations that are increasingly powered by autonomous agents. Demand for Taktile accelerated in 2025, as AI models became capable of automating high-stakes decisions that previously required hours of manual work—from underwriting business loans and assessing claims to catching financial crime. Customers automate and optimize decisions with Taktile by combining its financial services expertise and product built for sector-specific AI use cases. One of the world’s largest insurers is running multiple use cases on Taktile, with projected cost efficiencies of over $90M in claims processing alone. Taktile’s team has a proven
New MetLife Study Reveals a 72% “Confidence Gap” in Ability to Recover from Life's Setbacks24.6.2026 16:25:00 EEST | Press release
A new multinational study from MetLife reveals a striking “confidence gap”: while most adults describe themselves as resilient, their confidence drops by 72% when faced with real-life setbacks. The Confident Pathways Report, conducted across the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Mexico, was designed to better understand how confidence is built and sustained throughout life. The findings underscore the role of opportunity, preparedness, and support in building confidence - factors that help people navigate uncertainty, recover from setbacks and pursue their goals. At a time when soccer is bringing people and communities together around the world, the findings also highlight how early childhood experiences such as sports, education, and mentorship can help foster resilience and gain confidence from a young age. Key findings across the four countries surveyed include: Confidence drops by 72% when adults consider their ability to recover from setbacks. Respondents were far more lik
StatLab Launches CytoPath Disc, Advancing Standardized Cell Block Preparation Worldwide24.6.2026 16:08:00 EEST | Press release
StatLab Medical Products, a leading global developer and manufacturer of pathology supplies and equipment, today announced the global launch of the CytoPath Disc, an innovative cell block preparation technology designed to standardize and simplify cell block preparation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260624368623/en/ Developed as an alternative to traditional cell block methods, which convert concentrated cells suspended in fluid into a paraffin-embedded format for slide-based evaluation, the patent‑pending CytoPath Disc offers a more streamlined and efficient approach. The CytoPath Disc absorbs concentrated cells within a simple, sponge-like matrix, which is then processed, embedded, stained, and sectioned using standard histology workflows. Traditional cell block preparation methods often present challenges in achieving consistent results due to complex procedures, as well as the need for additional equipm
TensorX Launches With €8M Seed Funding Round Led by Darius Cubed Ventures for Bet on European Sovereign AI Infrastructure With Plans to Deploy up to €100M in NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs24.6.2026 16:07:00 EEST | Press release
A team of Irish founders has committed €8 million to Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, including the latest B300 chips, to launch TensorX, a sovereign AI inference platform designed for Europe's AI builders, trusted by regulated industries and already generating revenue from paying customers. The company was founded by Shane Morton, is part of the NVIDIA Inception program and is partnering with Dell on sourcing GPU hardware. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260528791384/en/ (From left to right): Craig Donnelly, Shane Morton, Nicole Morton, Tim Grant At a time when enterprises are racing to adopt artificial intelligence but most remain unwilling to let their data leave European jurisdiction, TensorX offers high-performance inference with zero data retention, running entirely on dedicated hardware in Dublin and Helsinki. TensorX is also in advanced talks around a financing facility to further expand its European footprint,
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom