Exscientia Announces Second Molecule Created Using AI From Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Collaboration to Enter Phase 1 Clinical Trial
13.5.2021 10:30:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Exscientia Ltd. (Headquarters: Oxford, UK; CEO: Andrew Hopkins) is pleased to acknowledge that Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. (Head office: Osaka, Japan, Representative Director, President and CEO: Hiroshi Nomura) has announced that they will initiate a Phase 1 clinical study of DSP-0038 in the United States for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease psychosis.
DSP-0038 is the third molecule created using Exscientia’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enter clinical trials. The two earlier compounds are DSP-1181, announced in 2020 together with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Exscientia’s immuno-oncology agent, EXS-21546, announced earlier this year.
Joint research between Exscientia and Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma designed DSP-0038 to be a single small molecule that exhibits high potency as an antagonist for the 5-HT2A receptor and agonist for the 5-HT1A receptor, whilst selectively avoiding similar receptors and unwanted targets, such as the dopamine D2 receptor. Selective dual targeting is a major challenge for conventional drug discovery, and psychiatric indications also require exceptional selectivity to avoid off-target effects. The successful design of DSP-0038 demonstrates opportunities to design selective molecules with dual activity.
DSP-0038 will be assessed for improved antipsychotic effects associated with Alzheimer’s disease psychosis, as well as improvements in behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia which include agitation, aggression, anxiety, and depression.
Toru Kimura, Representative Director, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma, said: "We have been impressed by the outstanding productivity of Exscientia's AI technologies. The combination of Exscientia’s AI with our company’s deep experience in monoamine GPCR drug discovery has now led to two molecules reaching our clinical pipeline from this collaboration.”
Andrew Hopkins, CEO of Exscientia, said: "This is further validation that our AI platform can turn complex biological challenges into high-quality clinical candidates quickly. To have what we believe to be the world’s first three clinical molecules created using AI arising from our own platform – two with Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma - is a wonderful achievement. We hope that through the creation of DSP-0038 improved treatments for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis will be realized."
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 two 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 or follow us on Twitter @exscientiaAI.
About Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.
Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma defines its corporate mission as "To broadly contribute to society through value creation based on innovative research and development activities for the betterment of healthcare and fuller lives of people worldwide." By pouring all our efforts into the research and development of new drugs, we aim to realize our corporate mission and provide innovative and effective pharmaceutical
solutions to people not only in Japan but also around the world. Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma's goal is to create innovative pharmaceutical products in the focus research areas of Psychiatry & Neurology, Oncology and Regenerative Medicine/Cell Therapy. For further details, visit https://www.ds-pharma.com.
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/20210513005059/en/
Contact information
Enquiries:
Edelman
Anitra Sprauten
P: +44 (0)7896 859386
Anitra.Sprauten@edelman.com
Stephanie Crisp
P: +44 (0)7583 003417
Stephanie.Crisp@edelman.com
For Exscientia
Mark Swindells: contact@exscientia.ai
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
Rehlko Defines What It Takes to Build AI-Ready Power Infrastructure as Data Center Energy Demands Evolve4.8.2026 16:15:00 EEST | Press release
Rehlko, a global industrial energy resilience platform providing custom-engineered, integrated power solutions for mission-critical infrastructure worldwide, today released new insights on the power infrastructure requirements emerging from the rapid growth of large language models and artificial intelligence. In its latest eBook, AI Readiness Starts with Power: Designing for Real-World Load Conditions, Rehlko examines how increasingly dynamic AI workloads are reshaping expectations for data center power systems and highlights key infrastructure considerations for operators seeking to scale AI capacity reliably and efficiently. As the eBook outlines, AI readiness is increasingly defined not by installed capacity, but by how systems perform under highly variable real-world load conditions. The AI Power Challenge As investment in AI infrastructure accelerates, data center operators face growing pressure to deploy capacity faster than traditional utility infrastructure can support. At the
HappyRobot Raises $150 Million Series C to Build Enterprise Superintelligence4.8.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
HappyRobot, the company putting AI agents to work across complex enterprise operations, today announced it has raised $150 million in Series C funding led by Prysm Capital and co-led by Eurazeo. Existing investors a16z, Base10, Y Combinator are doubling down with participation from strategics like Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Orange, and T.Capital (Deutsche Telekom), Bankinter, Endeavor Catalyst, Kfund and Wave-X. The round values the company at $1.2 billion post-money, bringing total funding to around $200 million and marking a new stage of growth as enterprises deploy AI agents across mission-critical work. HappyRobot works with more than 150+ enterprise customers, including DHL, Kuehne + Nagel, Naturgy, Repsol, and Uber, and has grown 5x since raising its Series B late last year. After first proving its platform in logistics, one of the world’s most operationally demanding industries, HappyRobot is expanding across the supply chain as well as into insurance, energy and utilit
New 3D Flash Memory Technology from Kioxia and Sandisk Achieves Industry’s Highest Bit Density for QLC NAND4.8.2026 15:30:00 EEST | Press release
Future of Memory and Storage Conference (FMS) – Kioxia Corporation, a subsidiary of Kioxia Holdings Corporation (TOKYO: 285A) and Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) today unveiled their next-generation Quad-Level-Cell (QLC) 3D flash memory technology, which delivers up to 60% increase in bit density compared to their 8th-generation, surpassing 37 Gb/mm² and setting the industry benchmark1 for bit density, performance and power efficiency. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260804147821/en/ Leveraging the companies’ revolutionary CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology2 which fabricates CMOS logic and the memory array on separate wafers before bonding them together with high-precision wafer-to-wafer alignment, the new generation improves read and write bandwidth compared to the 8th-generation 3D flash memory and becomes the industry’s first QLC 3D flash memory technology to reach a 4.8 Gb/s 3 interface. Add
Thredd and Pliant Expand Partnership to Launch U.S. Commercial Credit Program, Accelerate Embedded Finance for Businesses4.8.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Thredd, the AI-first issuer processing platform, today announced the expansion of its partnership with Pliant, bringing the company’s commercial credit and embedded finance platform capabilities to the U.S. market for the first time. Pliant provides European businesses with physical and virtual credit cards that have built-in reconciliation, spend controls, and deep integrations into modern finance stacks. Through its expanded partnership with Thredd, Pliant has successfully mirrored its established European proposition in the U.S., enabling American businesses to issue commercial credit cards that maintain real-time visibility into spend and cash-flow management. The program is live in the U.S. on the Visa network, with bank sponsorship provided by Coastal. The launch follows a successful soft rollout in late 2025, allowing Pliant to begin onboarding U.S. customers while laying the foundation for long-term growth in the market. “This partnership reflects exactly what Thredd is built f
Vasion® is Imprivata®-Ready Certified to Bring Trusted Identity Across Healthcare Print Infrastructure4.8.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vasion, a leader in intelligent print automation, today announced a strategic integration with Imprivata, a leading digital identity and access management company for life- and mission-critical industries, starting with healthcare. The Vasion platform, with PrinterLogic®, PrinterLogic Output, and Vasion Automate, offers shared Imprivata customers a unified identity layer, spanning endpoints and printers, for secure, enterprise-wide visibility into every print job. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260804404337/en/ The integration is designed to maximize existing Imprivata deployments. No rip-and-replace is required. The Vasion platform works with the Imprivata infrastructure organizations already have in place, extending its value to print without adding new hardware. Print environments remain a blind spot in identity and access management. The stakes are significant. Quocirca's 2025 Print Security Landscape stu
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